Working with Monster Girls
by WrestleCrazyGamer
Summary: *Teen 16 Up* Ryuji Satogami is forcibly made to join MON, valued less for his views and more for his tactical skill. He doesn't think the way the traditional person thinks, and isn't afraid to embrace the culture of an extraspecies. Ordered around by Agent Smith, and constantly being sent to check up on the main cast, he ends up with a team of his own. *It's Back!*
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 01: New Beginnings

I was careless that time. I let the condition of my friends compromise what I should have been focusing on. I was supposed to be watching the armored one, keeping her pinned down… but I looked away for ten seconds… and the next thing I knew everything was bright, all I could hear was ringing, and then I was falling… when I landed my vision was a blur. I couldn't feel anything really… but my vision was clear enough to recognize the red fluid coming out of my side. My submachine gun was lying there beside me as figures in black began approaching me. I saw vague figures of my friends going down one by one.

"He's alive, thank goodness…" one of them spoke.

"Get him out of here." another spoke.

I couldn't even grab my gun, and it was right there. I couldn't hardly move my fingers as one with red hair lifted me over their shoulder and began carrying me away. I was furious… tears streamed down my face as I lay helplessly draped over her shoulder.

"Boss, what do we do?! We might hit you if we retaliate!" my vest radio asked.

"Just… open fire…" I choked out, and muffled gunfire began going off.

The one holding me fell down as bullets riddled my body too. If we took even one of them with us, then it was worth it. My vision began going black as one began CPR on me. Everything started going cold… and then… warm… was I dead…? I weakly opened my eyes to find myself in a medical facility. Kobold nurses with a human doctor were checking my vital signs… I had friends who worked like this… but these people… were MON employees. The logo was emblazoned on their upper backs beneath their medic logo. I was covered in bandages and had a respiratory device over my mouth. Both my arms had IV's in them as well.

"Good, you're awake. You gave us a scare there… having to jump your heart six times in three hours… we were afraid we were going to lose you." the doctor sighed with a smile.

"I know you must be confused, but it's okay, you're at MON Headquarters, you're safe now." one of the nurses told me while smiling… and it pissed me off.

"Unplug me… I'd rather die a martyr… than be converted…" I growled.

"Your name is Ryuji Satogami, 19, O+ Blood Type, served a grand total of six months in juvenile hall… and joined the Demonic Fang group who opposes friendly relations between humans and extraspecies." a woman spoke walking into view.

"We don't oppose it, we just don't approve of how you're regulating it…" I growled.

"I'm Agent Smith, by the way. Believe it or not, many of us aren't too happy with it either. We work tirelessly to try and make it so every extraspecies can someday experience the cultural exchange with humans. That includes repealing and passing rules and regulations on a regular basis." Smith sighed cleaning her glasses.

 **Author note: Ryuuji will indicate who speaks by last name if the speaker has a last name for him to use.**

"So, what… just going to keep me locked up?" I asked angrily.

"Actually, my superiors have decided that rather than throwing you in a jail cell, we're going to appoint you as leader of MON Response Team 7." Ms. Smith sighed.

"There are only six MON response teams…" I commented.

"Not anymore." she smiled getting close to my face.

I'd have decked her if my arms weren't restrained by the IV's. She had my bed wheeled through the facility where many extraspecies and humans were being treated. They wheeled me to a dark room where Smith's little bitches were now standing in a circle around me. I recognized the redhead, and I scoffed guessing that it was too much to ask that MON had at least ONE casualty.

"Watch the attitude, bud, the fact you aren't a zombie is the only reason I'm not ripping you a new one." she growled.

"Zombina, be civil." Ms. Smith scolded her.

"The psychopath ordered his buddies to open fire on him. Who knows what he could do?" Zombina argued.

"When I recover you'll find out." I growled and Smith gripped my shoulder.

"Now girls, he's our newest coworker effective immediately. I want you to put the fact he fired at all of you intending to kill you behind you." Ms. Smith ordered with a smile.

"Why the hell should I accept a job at the place I'm trying to destroy?!" I demanded to know.

"Violence won't get anything accomplished. So change it from the inside with peaceful means. Prove to those who work here that the regulations are wrong. With enough evidence, we can repeal and revise protocols and the like. We had to kill a lot of humans and extraspecies because of your group… so be the one to let them drop their arms." Smith told me.

I hated the very thought of putting on one of those black suits, but she had a point. All we ever did was start shootouts with MON whenever we could find them. We've secretly recruited many extraspecies and humans too, having them submit fake forms to lure them into the open. I spent a solid month recovering from the wounds, and even then they said not to overdo it. Many of the other agents said that I'm lucky that I survived the bullet hell that I ordered they rain down on me. A lot of them were already nicknaming me "Bullet Hell" because of my cockroach level of tenacity.

When the doctors cleared me, I begrudgingly moved into the lodgings they'd prepared "conveniently" one block from HQ. I had no belongings, so my only clothes at the moment were the underpants, pajamas, and work suits they provided me. They'd confiscated my weapons from the raid too, which sucked ass. Apparently the first thing that'd happen in the morning would be getting put in the training program so I "know the rules". At the very least the bed was comfy and the place was already stocked with food.

The time was 1:23am, and someone had snuck into my new home. Too bad for them, I'm a very light sleeper. The intruder received a hard left hook making them trip over the desk chair and fall over as I flipped on the light. There was a guy with flat brown hair wearing an agent suit holding his now bloody nose.

"That's some good morning…" he groaned.

"It's 1:23 in the morning. I don't have to be up for another four hours." I growled.

"Come on, you're a newbie, right? I figured you'd want to see one of the rarer sights of the extraspecies babes working here…" he spoke standing up plugging his nose with tissues.

"In other words you're a voyeuristic senior coworker right out of a manga…?" I commended.

"It's not being a voyeur, it's being supportive of their hard work." he chuckled.

"The way you're grinning says otherwise." I sighed.

Begrudgingly I walked to the front yard with him. Sure enough, down the road came several kobold and centaur women with bouncing chests, heavy breathes, and glistening bodies from their sweat. Just like a monkey, he was staring at only two things… T&A. I snuck back into the house and sure enough I heard a loud metallic smack and seconds after a horseshoe with a bit of blood on it rolled into the doorway. I left him in the yard and went back to bed. I'd lost some valuable sleep time, so I decided to make up for it I'd be fashionably late.

When it was actually time to wake up, I heard a voice as I showered followed by the sound of my bed creaking a bit. I finished my shower, dried off, and got dress walking back into my room while fixing my tie. Zombina and the heavily armored one were in my room.

"Man, I was hoping to body slam you because you're a bit late…" Zombina told me with a pout.

"Just because I elected not to go to college doesn't make me a slacker, profiler…" I commented.

"Who's profiling?!" she snapped at me.

"We haven't formally introduced ourselves as your seniors, have we?" the armored one spoke while taking off her helmet showing her face.

"Guess not. You know who I am though." I sighed.

"I'm Tionishia, but just Tio is fine. I'm an ogre." she smiled.

"How can you be so nice to an ex-terrorist like him?!" Zombina exclaimed in shock.

"Isn't the keyword in your sentence 'ex'? That denotes being formerly of that occupation or position. In other words, I know he won't perform terrorist type activities while working for us. Smith-san already said that she's watching his every move as well, and we know how she is." Tio calmly replied countering her argument.

"Jeez, just get to the training grounds!" Zombina barked, so I decided to take my sweet time walking.

When I arrived, as was typical in high school, the instructor scolded me for being a grand total thirty minutes late. That meant I missed the whole "I'll break you and rebuild you" speech that every trainer gives you. I did wind up getting a solid ten minute lecture on what I already know about the training as a result though. I'm supposed to be learning the skills necessary to be able to not just control the extraspecies enrolled in the program but also the extraspecies on my team. Speaking of teams, there were only three other agent trainees there with me.

First up was learning proper greetings to different extraspecies. It was high school all over, as we were three extraspecies to properly greet to see how much we knew about greeting already. My lineup was a minotaur, a dragonewt, and a mermaid. When the whistle blew, the minotaur didn't extend her hand which meant a greeting to test strength and bravery. To her shock when she went to head butt me I leapt up to meet her forehead managing to make her back up a bit in shock. I simply wiped the blood from my forehead and moved on as she nodded her head.

The dragonewt is a proud species, so instead of a hand shake I bowed to her. I saw her face light up and she tried to kick me in the face. She avoided eye contact afterward, which meant that she wasn't prepared for it. They're often just treated to handshakes putting them on the same level, so not many know about the whole bowing thing.

Last, but not least was the mermaid. She had an expectant smile on her face and extended her hand, expecting it to be shaken. I took her hand and instead kissed the knuckles making steam burst from her ears as her face became bright pink. They love tragic romance, so I figured a sign of affection even though we can't do anything would make for a great greeting. Then the whistle blew again and my instructor stomped over to me.

"What the HELL are you doing, Satogami?!" the instructor barked.

"Greeting them the way their people do and expect." I replied.

"You're here to coexist, not give them special treatment!" she barked again.

"Well then, racist, I'll have you know that it's really rude to disregard their culture and force ours on them." I argued and her face became red like magma.

"Ten laps!" she ordered, and even though those laps sucked ass I could tell I won that argument.

The sore loser then had me handshake them before he'd let me catch up to what the other trainees were doing though. It seemed no matter what I did I pissed her off. Dangerous Situation, enemy has a weapon and yours is at your feet, I disregarded my weapon and downed by enemy. I think it pissed her off more because the other trainees didn't even consider it an option and began trying to mimic me. Truth be told, it was training in the Demon Fang all over again, but about 200% easier. Her rage went through the roof when I didn't let my partner down me when it was his turn to try it. By the time lunch rolled around I was already sent to Smith's office.

"So… you got sent here, according to this note, for disregarding orders and being a smartass… that true?" Smith asked.

"Smartass, yes, disregarding orders, no. She asked me to properly greet them, so I greeted them the way their people usually greet each other. She said to detain my opponent while my weapon was at my feet, so I did it the way I usually do it." I replied.

"So in other words you're showing off. We can't exactly punish you for that, since you're showing results. I guess it's your reputation built upon the fact it's the first day." Smith sighed.

"My bad…?" I commented.

"Well, we can't exactly remove you from training because all agents have to complete it. Just try not to show off as much, okay?" she asked.

"I'm just showing my skill. You'd think I'd be praised for thinking outside the box. Not every enemy is going to come from the front, they aren't always just going to have a knife, and you won't always have the time to figure out a way to get your weapon from the ground to your hand." I explained with a sigh.

"So what you're saying is our training is flawed in a way." Smith grinned.

"Well that's putting words in my mouth, but if you want to interpret it that way…" I spoke thinking about it.

"You're partially correct. We only cover one-on-one situations with the best case scenario. We don't teach you a thing about unfair odds or varied circumstances. Those are on-the-job kind of lessons. In the meantime, try not to piss off the instructor more than you already have. I'll see if I can't get something done about the program itself." Smith told me with a smile.

When I got back to the training yard, every trainee was unconscious for some reason. All it took was looking up the yard to see the instructor was absolutely livid to find out the reason. I walked toward her and she charged me. She ran right into my fist knocking herself out. That boys and girls is why we don't charge people in a blind rage. Just about everywhere becomes a weak point. With both the instructor and my peers rendered unconscious, I took a lunch break at the house. With no money to use the food court, I found myself a little glad that home was next door.

The following day I learned that the instructor that was trying to go drill sergeant on us was just a sub that Smith called in because her desk was swamped with work. The stand in allowed her to catch up on the sea of paperwork in her office, and also earned me a reprimanding because I knocked out the sub. To be fair, she went berserk, which was why I was given tantamount to a slap on the wrist with their speech on morals.

"Today, because I don't want to spend more time on this than necessary, you'll be given your first partners today." Smith told us.

"So, you're just neglecting the rest of the training?" I asked.

"Not at all. We just believe that it's hard to work with an extraspecies if you don't get to know how their species works. We could give you the best training available, but if you don't know how to work with them and their pros and cons then we'll be in a tough spot." Smith replied smiling.

So we were taken into the facility to a white and grey room that could easily house 200, and there were red boxes of varying sizes with clipboards beside the doors. Smith had us line up alphabetically. The lights over certain boxes were darker than others it seemed.

"Inside these boxes are prospective extraspecies who will be eligible to finish their own training in the next month or so. You're to choose one to be your first teammate. Each of you will then be in charge of caring for them." Smith told us.

"Go on the buzzer. There's no time limit on this so take your time, ask questions to each one, get to know each other a little, see what qualifications suit what you're aiming for." Zombina ordered, and seconds later a loud gym buzzer went off.

I explored the clipboard information first. It had their picture on it, their name, species, blood type, medical information, and a lot of other usually classified stuff. In other words, they wanted us to know exactly who we'll be talking to in these booths. What I looked for was their skills though. They had a big variety too, but I'd as of yet to see one bearing the skill of tactical combat. Sure, the two minotaurs that were there had superior strength listed, but nothing saying they actually knew how to act in a variety of situations. The cyclops among the group had blacksmithing and strength listed, but no combat skills.

I was halfway down the immense room before I knew it. At the very end of the hall was a black box compared to the other red ones. It made me curious, so I grabbed it and began to read. Her name was Bolt, a kobold, 18, B- blood, and had tracking, cleaning, and tactical warfare listed. Oddly enough, she didn't have a picture on her clipboard. At the very bottom of the last page it had "due to unprofessional behavior, this prospect is highly unadvised" written in bold. In the entire hall, she was the only one who listed the skills I was aiming for at the moment. So I opened the door entering.

She had golden fur, which I guess is how she got her name. She was wearing a black muscle shirt along with red cargo pants. For some reason she was barefoot. I sat down as her tail wagged somewhat happily.

"So you're Bolt?" I asked.

"Yes, sir. Skilled in tracking, cleaning, and combat." she replied.

"This lists you as unprofessional… mind elaborating?" I asked.

"I… have a bad habit of getting attached. I got so attached to my buddies that I left my post after one got downed in a mock assassination operation. That caused the entire thing to fall apart…" she told me sighing while with a depressed tone.

"While that may be unprofessional, that doesn't make it a bad thing. I'm pretty sure you heard about me at the extraspecies training grounds, but I'm ex-Demon Fang. We cared about each other and worked toward making it so we aren't imposing unfair restraints on extraspecies. Telling you not to care about coworkers because it's unprofessional is exactly one of the things I'm highly against. Supposedly I'm recruiting, so you won't have to worry about being scolded for it with me." I told her, and she smiled wide.

"Really?" she asked looking hopeful.

"I've done a lot of bad things, I've shot people… but if there's one thing I'm not, it's a liar." I sighed and she leapt across the table hugging me.

I took her to get the paperwork filled. Smith wouldn't stop grinning the entire time. Evidently she had some kind of plan for me. When the day was over they'd already modified the house to be able to contain at least six people. It used to be one story, but now it was two despite its height and length looking like it was more than that. They'd already moved Bolt's things inside as well. They weren't kidding when they said I'd be taking care of her.

Bolt was like a puppy exploring the house wagging her tail. I admit it was nice seeing someone not secretly wanting to hit me or worse. I prepared dinner while she unpacked, and to be honest it felt nice. In Demon Fang, we always had to have people looking out for possible MON raids while we tried to cook as fast as we could. I didn't have to rush it causing imperfections in the meal. My first day in Demon Fang we got raided during a meal… if it wasn't for some of the older members I'd have been captured long ago.

That night as I lay in bed I couldn't help thinking about what Demon Fang must be doing without me there. Hell, they must have already figured out that MON has me pinned under their thumb. It began storming too, making me remember when Demon Fang picked me up from my old house. A loud thunder clap had my door fly open and Bolt leapt through the air in slow motion landing on top of me shaking. Another clap sound making her cling tighter to me.

"You okay?" I asked.

"I-I hate thunder… it hurts my ears…" she whimpered.

"Well clinging to me won't exactly help." I joked with her.

"It helps me sleep during storms to hold onto someone… s-so just for tonight… let me sleep with you…?" she asked.

I couldn't say no to those eyes. You know the look, when a puppy really wants something from you? That look. She crawled under the covers and snuggled close to me. She'd tense up when the thunder would clap, but she eventually fell asleep holding onto my arm. It was very hard to not pop wood while she was holding onto me. When morning came, I felt her bosoms on my face. Sure enough, she'd changed positions in her sleep. I had to gently wake her up, which escalated to having to roll her off because she's a heavy sleeper.

Morning exercises got interesting fast though. Smith prioritized immediately learning to work with teammates. The goal of the day was to find a specific item. Each item was unique to each time so we couldn't just follow another team to success. If we happened upon another team's item we weren't allowed to say anything either. Our item was a rare flower, called a Mountain Firecracker to be exact, hidden somewhere in the building. I had Bolt begin sniffing the inside of the building for a flower scent. She found six different traces, so whether we liked it or not we had to go after each scent trail.

The first trail led us to a female agent who had perfume of that scent. The second led us to the printer on the fourth floor. Then Bolt said there were now 25 scent trails. That gave me two theories. Someone's moving the pot it's in around to spread the scent, or it's literally on someone working here as they go about their day. We kept following the scents, but I still kept a sharp eye out. I'd never seen one before, but I knew what a normal firecracker flower looked like, so if the two are related it couldn't be that hard to identify.

A solid two hours of searching went by and eventually we hit a fresh line of scent. Bolt dragged me through the halls, up some stairs, through more halls, and into an office where she pounced a poor unsuspecting dryad. She was shaking with fear as Bolt sat on top of her panting like a dog.

"I found her! I found the source! Praise me! Praise me!" Bolt demanded with her tongue hanging out.

"Good job… sorry she pounced you, we were asked to find the flower on your head." I explained to her.

"T-The flower on my head? Y-You could have just asked and I'd have plucked it for you…" she weakly choked out.

"Sorry about that… guess I got carried away." Bolt apologized while rubbing the back of her head.

We reported to the grounds to find that apparently we took the longest to find our object. Smith then told us the one she intended us to find was on the front desk in a vase. At the least she apologized for making us go on that goose chase. After that experience she let us do weights instead of searching for a second item with the others. With all that walking, I was glad to be hitting the weights. Bolt was slightly saddened, which led me to believe she really liked walks, or she was into collars and leashes. An image began forming while I did curls and then I smacked myself in the face with the weight to dispel it.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine… there was a bug." I replied.

"Did you get it?" she asked.

"Yes. I got it." I replied.

It was a solid four months of training before at last the graduation ceremony came around. We were all officially being named MON Agents. In other words, I wouldn't be relying on the company to fill my place with supplies. I was on a paycheck and would be budgeting. Dear god, I was going to be a functioning adult. Never thought that'd happen with my track record. I'd call my folks to let them know if they didn't disown me. I wouldn't be too surprised if they called the cops, only to find out the cops were the ones who gave MON permission to do this to me.

Morning came and my alarm woke me up as usual. Bolt startled me by being at the side of my bed fully dressed panting with anticipation. Someone was excited for her first day of actual work. I had her make a pot of hot coco for me so I could shower and get dressed. She was confused at first, but appeared to figure it out as I heard the coffee maker working from the shower. Once I was finally dressed she was sitting at the table looking proud of herself. She tried putting the coco in a filter and having the water pass through like coffee grounds. It didn't work all that well, so I had to dump what didn't get poured in from the filter into the pot to mix it. I then told her that she had to put the powder in the pot and then let the water be poured from there. It didn't affect the flavor, so I wasn't too annoyed by it.

Smith was there to greet us at the doors. She had a particular grin on her face as we approached. I didn't like it at all.

"Hey there, junior agents. I need a favor." Smith told us.

"What do you want?" I asked anticipating something typical of an upperclassman prank.

"There's a particular homestay I haven't had the chance to go and check up on. Can you two go do that for me?" Smith asked.

"Why do we have to do your work?" I asked.

"I'm swamped with paperwork, and the top brass won't let me delegate it to anyone, but I really need a progress report from them. So, as new agents who haven't been given an assignment yet, can you do that for me?" Smith asked.

"Fine, where's the address?" I asked, and he handed me a vanilla envelope.

Much to Bolt's delight, we walked there. It was a nice morning, not too hot, not too cold, and there was a gentle breeze. Mornings like that, it sucks when you have to drive everywhere instead of enjoy the weather. We arrived at the residence of a "Kurusu Kimihito". I rang the doorbell, and there was a mass of sounds from inside. Sure enough, the guy in the picture on the dossier answered the door.

"Hello. Can I help you?" he greeted us.

"I'm Agent Satogami, this is my partner Bolt. Smith sent me to check up on you, since she hasn't gotten the chance." I told him.

"Oh. Well, come in then." he chuckled opening the door more.

In the living room was the source of the ruckus. His charges had been playing a game and it seemed the doorbell startled them causing them to fall all over each other. I helped Kurusu untangle the group and sit down.

"Girls, this is Agent Satogami and Agent Bolt." he introduced us.

"Is Miss Smith sick?" the Lamia asked.

"She's swamped with work, so she sent us in her stead." I explained.

So I began with the usual questions our training said to ask. The consensus seemed to be that they really enjoyed their homestay conditions. It was on the way out that I noticed one not in the files of his homestays. A slime, hiding pretty poorly under a desk.

"Are you aware of the slime?" I asked him.

"Oh. That's Suu. Smith let her stay here… because she didn't want to deal with the paperwork." Kimihito replied with a chuckle.

"You know both of you could get in trouble if she isn't registered properly right?" I asked him.

"What?" he asked back.

"It's a Sheltering Offense, according to our rulebook. All extraspecies, without exception, are required to be registered as a homestay. Otherwise we have no means of knowing if they're legal or not." I told him.

"It says that?" Bolt asked.

"If you'd read the book at least half as thoroughly as I did, you'd know." I gently scolded her.

"You aren't going to take Suu away are you?" he asked.

"Too big a hassle. I'll come back with paperwork so you two can fill it out later." I told them with an annoyed sigh.

"So, Slimes aren't banned?" he asked.

"No. It can just be a royal pain to get them to answer questions sometimes." I told him, and after saying farewell we returned to HQ.

The instant we got in the doors someone was already shouting my last name. To my surprise, it wasn't a senior agent… but my mom and dad. Both looked remarkably excited to see me.

"You decided to stop that terrorist nonsense…" mom spoke while crying.

"We knew you had it in you to be good." dad sighed with relief.

"Mom, dad, did you even listen to the details of me working here?" I asked.

"Regardless of how, you've gone straight. Do what you can to make up for the trouble you caused, okay?" mom pleaded.

It was good to see mom and dad again, I will admit that. I didn't appreciate the looks my coworkers gave me making me feel embarrassed about the scene they made. We reported to my new office on the third floor, and party favors went off as we entered. The agents I'd graduated with were there with Smith. A banner was hung in the upper part of the room congratulating me on becoming a good guy.

"The entire time during training you didn't associate with your peers at all. That'll be a problem later as you become more experienced, so I figured what better way than a small celebration?" Smith told me.

Regardless of if I wanted to, I had no choice. I sat down introduced myself to my peers, since all of them were presumably older than me. That made it polite to do so first.

"I'm Kanji Bando, and this is my partner Saki. I'm easily the oldest of us in this room. I may be old, but I'm also wiser than you think. So if you have a problem, feel free to come see me." one of them spoke.

Bando was a pretty large guy. Not in the sense that he's fat, but that he's got muscle despite his age. He seemed friendly enough though, even though his partner looked really nervous sitting beside him. She was a blue-skinned Oni, so while she was roughly his height she was uncomfortable around new people.

"I guess I'll go next then. I'm Sanae Yoshino, this is my partner Rei. If you have any need to call upon me, don't." the girl of my peers spoke coldly.

Yoshino seemed to hold my reputation against me. She held her long black hair up in a braided bun and wore glasses with a red frame. Her partner, Rei, was a Raptor Harpy. She had her red hair cut short, and was perched effortlessly on Yoshino's shoulder. It actually explained why she wore the shoulder harness throughout our training. She must have finally convinced her it was okay to ride her shoulder.

"That just leaves us. I'm Yosuke Hajime. This is my partner Yuna. She's a Wyvern, awesome right?" he introduced himself.

"Shut up." Yuna barked at him.

The level of spike in Yosuke's hair seemed unnatural to me. At the very least he seemed to be a nice guy. His partner looked to be unused to flattery and often took offense to it almost as bad as being given an insult. The two had an odd chemistry though.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, I'm proud to announce that you'll all be recruiting your own teammates to make a squad of four not including yourself." Smith told us.

"We get to choose?" Hajime asked.

"From packs of dossiers listing potential agents. Don't see any that peek your fancy, see if one of your peers has one you find appealing." Smith replied.

That made things a little interesting. We were being trusted to recruit our members. That meant going to personally see them. The question would be what to do if negotiations fall out with them. They wouldn't give us weapons with live ammo, naturally, which would make where we fire matter in how fast we down them. Things were going to get interesting.

End Chapter 1 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Recruiting

I took a good look at my dossiers, and only one of the extraspecies caught my eye. One they listed as "Dangerous: Remove Immediately". Only the species and an address was listed on it for some reason, and that got me interested. So we took a van and went on our way. I had to scold Bolt numerous times not to stick her head out the window. Only fifteen minutes into the trip I had to close the window on her side and disable her ability to open it. Kobolds really did come in multiple varieties, some were like wolves, and some were like dogs. Bolt was unfortunately like a dog, which meant I would likely need to keep her on a leash while we were there too.

Our prospect was an Arachne, but I didn't understand why she was listed as dangerous if they're in the Exchange Program. All I could do was review how we're supposed to recruit in the field against recruiting in the office. We had a long drive to where we were going, so it was all I could do besides listen to the radio as I drove. I also learned that Bolt had a pretty nice singing voice as she sang along to the songs of the radio. We'd left at six o'clock sharp, and we finally arrived at roughly 1:25pm. The address brought us to a very old and rundown house in the middle of a forest. I knocked on the door, but got no answer. I knocked again, and still nothing. I figured she was out or something, but when the hairs on the back of my neck stood up I tackled Bolt down narrowly evading something crashing into the door from behind.

I quickly took aim to see dust obscuring my target. To Bolt's dismay, I grabbed her and rolled to the side evading another blind lunge from our attacker. This time I aimed at their possible location and fired. My knockout round had hit the shoulder of a Large Breed Arachne with crimson fur, a large bust, and long crimson hair. She wore a pitch black gown-like outfit and an eyepatch on her top left eye. She didn't seem the least bit phased by my shot either.

"They're underestimating me… sending just two people to extract and deport me? I'm disappointed…" she grinned.

"Actually, I'm here to recruit you for MON's seventh response team." I told her.

"Lies!" she roared lunging at me.

With Bolt still dizzy from my tackle and roll, I dropped my gun and locked hands with her ignoring her claws piercing the backs of my hands. She was very strong, just like rumors of her breed say, but I was just barely able to redirect where her advance was going. She laughed as she kicked me through a wall and I saw Bolt leap on her back making her thrash about trying to get her off as Bolt bit her shoulder. Bolt continued hitting her with her teeth latched onto her shoulder, until she smashed herself into the side of the van to get her off. She charged me again and speared me to the back wall of the house.

"Pathetic… you two think you're enough?!" she laughed as she continued punching my gut.

I got sick of her mouth and with a quick move slipped under her and dislocated one of her legs. I'm not strong enough to break her bones, but damn if I can't dislocate some. She was slowed down a bit, but it didn't diminish her fighting spirit. I was now able to dodge smoothly. She eventually punched a support beam making it cave in and a ton of webs came falling down on her along with a Small Breed Arachne with blue hair. She thrashed about trying to get the webs off, but only managed to get herself tied up and unable to swing her arms anymore.

"Muri! Your webs could not have worse timing than right now!" she barked at the smaller Arachne.

"S-Sorry… you said to practice my web skills so I could be like the bigger breeds… so I did it upstairs…" the small one cried.

I'd forgotten about the smaller breed of Arachne. They usually only use their webs when falling, which makes their strength and resilience higher than the highest quality steel beams in the market today. Lucky us that she tried to be like a normal breed, because my gun was still outside.

"Hey there. Sorry about the mess, but maybe you'll listen to what I have to say. You see, we want to recruit her to be part of our response team, but she thinks we're here to deport her." I told the one named Muri.

"You… aren't here to deport us?" she asked nervously.

"Don't listen to his lies, Muri!" the larger one barked still trying to get free.

"I'm not going to deport you. I have the dossier on your friend in the van. So I can promise you that I'm not here to deport you. No tricks, no lies." I told her with a smile.

"You mean it? Pinky promise?" she asked coming close to me extending her pinky.

"Pinky promise." I replied shaking pinkies with her.

Bolt and I had to work together to get her in the van, keeping the webs on her so she couldn't cause trouble in the back. Boy did she struggle though. I made sure Muri was nice and secure in the back before fixing the Bolt-shaped dent in the side. Only then did I let Bolt treat the bloody indents she made in my hands. Then it was a very… very long trip back to HQ. It was worse than on the way because the larger Arachne wouldn't stop barking profanities at us. Around halfway back the knockout round I shot her with earlier finally kicked in giving some peace and quiet.

"You aren't tricking us like that lady with black hair, are you…?" Muri asked nervously.

"I'm a lot of things… but I'm not a liar when it comes to the important stuff." I told her.

When we arrived at HQ, Smith and her group were at the doors looking extremely worried. When I let Muri out of the back they rushed to us and were shocked to see the larger Arachne in the back. Smith actually fell to her knees looking extremely relieved.

"I thought I'd sent you to your deaths…" Smith sighed.

"Why?" I asked.

"There was a mix-up in the dossiers… you were given members of a list of deportees who were continually giving us trouble…" Smith replied.

"You promised…" Muri whimpered.

"I don't like breaking promises either. Smith-san, I promised Muri that we weren't going to deport either of them and I was recruiting her friend there." I spoke.

"You're going to recruit her? She's put a ton of us in critical condition when we first brought them here." Manako asked in a concerned voice.

"I'm an ex-Demonic Fang member, a known 'terrorist' group, and I was given a second chance. What excludes her from the same service that you couldn't use to justify jailing me right now?" I asked, and Bolt smiled a bit as she stared at me.

"You're the one who made the promise… so the paperwork's all yours!" Smith spoke handing me a vanilla envelope containing application papers with a big smile on her face.

"Eh?" was all I could say.

"Don't forget to put your signature on each line that requires it, and also get her signature so both parties are consenting. I'll let you handle the homestay work for the little one too. I'll report to the top brass that you're both safe and sound, so see ya after everything's settled." Smith spoke before promptly taking her team and leaving.

The large Arachne eventually came to and began growling. Muri climbed up onto her shoulders making her slightly calm down.

"First, I'm Agent Satogami. This is Agent Bolt." I told her.

"Come on, tell them your name… they aren't bad people." Muri urged her.

"I'm Terra Tula… she's my little sister, Muri Tula…" she growled.

"You're two different Arachne breeds though." Bolt asked.

"We're half-sisters. Her mommy passed away, but then our daddy met my mommy… I was born a year after their wedding." Muri added.

"I see. I don't want to see you two separated… so I'll be your host for a homestay too. That sound square?" I asked.

"Y-You won't make me leave my sister?" Muri asked looking hopeful.

"Yeah. We can't ask you to join the squad because of your age, but at the very least your sister will be able to keep an eye on you." I told her with a smile.

"Tch… bend my arm further why don't you…" Terra growled.

"Next, we'll need to get your blood type and get a list of your actual skills. So we're going to free you from the webs, okay?" I asked.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't pummel you as soon as you do?" she growled at me.

"Please, sis? We don't have to be fugitives anymore…" Muri pleaded with her, and she inevitably broke.

"Only… because it's in your best interests… and my leg still hurts…" Terra groaned.

The paperwork went over smoothly enough, but I was quickly reprimanded when I reported how we took her down. I forgot that we aren't allowed to touch the extraspecies due to the exchange bill, and that's the purpose of our extraspecies partners. Bolt wasn't in any condition, and I wasn't about to drug her up with knockout rounds. Going by previous attempts, the pistol type shots don't work as effectively on larger extraspecies as they'd like to have civilians believe. So while I was in big trouble for it, they inevitably let it go because they could cross off a name from the highly dangerous fugitive list. When it came to moving the two in, they had to remodel more of the house due to Terra's lower body width. So we now had double-doors for front doors instead of a single door. That also means larger hallways and steps going upstairs. To be honest I felt like the house was a really abstract highway now.

I had to get Terra a boot for her injured leg too, at which point she tried to kick me several times while I put it on her. She hated walking with it, but it was necessary for her leg to heal properly. Any time we passed in the house she'd take a swing at me too, which was always easy enough to dodge. The only time she didn't try anything was when Muri was present. She seemed to really like the living accommodations made for her, and like Bolt she appreciated my cooking as well. Even Terra begrudgingly admitted that my cooking "wasn't half bad". Smith had me turn in routine reports about her behavior though, in which I chose to lie about her taking swings at me. She'd eventually simmer down, probably. One day after my report, she had me stay a little longer…

"You remember Mr. Darling, yes? Well, as luck would have it, it's time to see them again, but I'm swamped yet again this month. Can you go see them for me? They seemed to really enjoy your etiquette." Smith asked me.

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Your coworkers are currently out trying to recruit from other countries, so they won't be back for a little while. I'm your senior agent, so can you do me this solid?" she pleaded.

"Fine…" I sighed.

This time Bolt had a final exam at her training facility, so it'd have to be Terra I took with me. Due to normal tranqs not performing well on her I had special "super knockout rounds" made, just in case I needed to drop her in a pinch. I hoped that I wouldn't need to use them, but I had them loaded just in case. She was at least kind enough not to distract me while I drove the van. We soon arrived at Kimihito's house. I rang the doorbell and a seemingly bigger racket sounded this time.

"Coming…" Kimihito's voice spoke in a pained tone.

When he opened the door he looked to be a little battered, but he was smiling nonetheless. I kind of felt bad for the guy.

"Satogami-san… welcome…" he greeted me.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Just… tripped down some stairs…" he replied sheepishly.

Inside there was a busted wheelchair, evident horseshoe marks, and the floor was a bit wet. In the living room Centorea, Mero, and Suu were sitting nervously trying to act natural. It was painfully obvious that Suu accidentally caused them to slide down the stairs. I made sure they weren't hurt as Kimihito called down the rest of his charges, asking they be careful of Suu's slime slick. It was all fine until Rachnera entered and immediately froze up upon seeing Terra.

"Rachnera? Is something wrong?" Kimihito asked.

"N-Nothing…" she spoke nervously making her way past Terra, who eyeballed her like prey.

The entire time Terra continued to stare at Rachnera like a hungry predator. When she went to the restroom I swore she was going to pounce at her. Luckily she didn't, but I had my eye on her. I decided to take the initiative…

"Rachnera-san. Does her breed bother you?" I asked.

"Bother… is a little off the mark. I'm scared, more or less. Large Breed Arachne tend to be violent, and are often short tempered around other Arachne. The slightest annoyance could cause them to want to pummel you into putty." she replied with a sigh.

"You aren't wrong about the violent part. I've got extra potent knockout shots in case she tries anything though, so try to relax a little." I assured her.

The rest of the visit was still tense, but at the very least she didn't try anything. After a solid hour it was time to go report to Smith. On the drive back though, I noticed that Terra looked a little down. I feared that she'd overheard what I said.

"Am I that scary?" Terra asked.

"Pardon?" I asked back.

"I know that I tower over her, and that I'm not exactly the smallest Arachne… and that my gaze can sometimes be confused for a hungry stare… but I was trying to behave myself…" Terra sighed, which immediately stung me for make that exact mistake.

"Well, I guess it just takes getting used to. Large Breeds aren't typically seen that often right? People are used to the other three breeds." I told her.

"I guess… doesn't help that I've already got a record." she sighed.

"Welcome to the club." I chuckled.

"What have you done?" Terra asked.

"Well… I'm sure you've heard of the Demonic Fang. I used to be a member of the group. I shot people, I blew up buildings, I assaulted MON operatives… and I've even kidnapped a few people. You could say I'm a bad man…" I replied trying to smile.

"My crimes sound petty compared to that. Maybe I have a chance at a normal life after all." Terra chuckled with a smile.

"Gee thanks!" I joked, and that actually got her to laugh.

I guessed that it'd been a while since the last time she laughed, but she really got a belt out of it. After my report, Terra seemed a bit less hostile toward Bolt. That also caused Muri to be a little less skittish. She stopped fleeing at the sight of me or Bolt approaching, at the very least, even if she knew we meant no harm and were nice enough. I just wish she wouldn't peer over the arm of the couch at me like she's observing prey.

Eventually the day I had to make my first shopping trip came. Bolt was busy sleeping and Terra didn't want to go outside. So I thought I may as well invite Muri along. I knocked on her door and she told me to wait a minute in a panicked voice. She then answered the door.

"Y-Yes?" Muri asked nervously.

"I'm going shopping in town. Would you like to come along?" I asked with a smile.

"I-Is that okay?" Muri asked.

"Sure it is. Today's my day off too, so I'll also be stopping to pick up some clothes that won't roast me alive when summer rolls around." I replied.

"T-Then I'd like to go…" Muri replied, and when we got outside I held her hand.

The walk to market was pretty nice. There was a gentle breeze blowing, and it was overall just a beautiful morning. The shopping went nicely without incident. I even decided to treat Muri to a slightly early lunch. She'd never had a burger or fries before, but after that meal she seemed to like them very much. I had to be very careful that her order came with juice and not soda though. I did not want to be in trouble for giving a minor alcohol, because spiders get drunk from caffeine. On the way to the exit of the food court though, she was a bit fidgety so I knelt down to her.

"You okay?" I asked.

"I-I have to go…" Muri whimpered, so I hurried to get her to the restroom.

While I waited for her to finish, a very unexpected acquaintance showed up. It was one of my pals from Demonic Fang… Shoh, a Lizardfolk. He was dressed in his usual getup: black dress shoes, blue slacks, and a short-sleeved button-up shirt with sunshades. He had a particular grin on his face as he approached me.

"Didn't take you to be a suit, Ryuji-kun." Shoh greeted me.

"You and I both know I hate MON suits as much as anyone else." I growled at him.

"Hey now, I'm here out of concern for a pal of mine, not an operative… today at least. So my scouts tell me you're making quite the harem…" he teased, and I stole his shades.

"Cut the shit." I growled.

"To the point as always. Listen, the higher ups aren't too happy that you've swapped sides on us. Sure they saved your life and all, but working for 'em?" Shoh told me.

"I'm not switching sides. I'm changing MON from the inside out, at least that's the plan anyway." I told him.

"Oh… so you're pulling a double agent angle… finding their weaknesses from within…" Shoh chuckled.

"I'm not finding their weaknesses, I'm changing their views. If they see how much better our way of treating them is, there's no way they won't change their act." I explained.

"Oh, so you're trying to convert them… you're way more devious than the top guys give you credit for." Shoh chuckled taking his shades back.

"Is that all you came for?" I asked.

"Eh, for today. Glad to see you're alive, at least. I'll let the top brass know what your intentions are… might get 'em to take their snipers off ya, at least for a little while. See ya around, buddy." Shoh told me before leaving.

"Does MON treat some of us badly…?" Muri squeaked as she left the bathroom nervously… which meant she'd overheard.

"They force human culture on them, telling them that their way is completely wrong and they should abandon it for a human lifestyle. Demonic Fang is against that, and in recent years has taken to an extremist, and even sometimes terroristic, approach due to MON not listening to us. It's okay though, I'm not going to do any of that crap. I've been given a chance to settle our differences with peaceful means… so I'm going to see it through to the end." I told her.

"Y-You mean it…? You aren't a bad man anymore…?" she asked nervously.

"Yes. I'm not a bad man anymore. No explosives, no guns, no kidnapping, no threats…" I replied with a smile, and she leapt onto the back of my shoulders using her front-most legs to hold on. I guess that meant she trusts me.

She rode my shoulders the entire way home. She was light, so I didn't mind it. When we got in the door Bolt rushed me complaining that she wanted to go. I could tell it was because we walked though. Terra smiled seeing how friendly Muri was being with me. I guess her fear was that Muri wouldn't be able to get used to humans. She liked me well enough though.

Then it occurred to me that when I was performing my main task of forming a team, I wouldn't be able to watch Muri here at home. So I began to look for possible sitters. Of course, that was when my reputation began to cripple my options. One day though, the doorbell rang and I opened it to find Kimihito along with Rachnera there.

"We found your flier looking for someone to look after her." he greeted me.

"Well, come on in." I smiled inviting them in.

It took some coaxing, but I managed to get Muri to come out of hiding. She was glued to my shoulders though. I appeared to be her pillar of confidence.

"Muri, this is Kurusu Kimihito-san and Rachnera Arachnera-san. They're good people." I told Muri.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Kimihito greeted Muri.

"So you have both a Small Breed and a Large Breed. Judging by her size, she's only about nine or ten years old…" Rachnera guessed looking Muri over.

"I'm glad someone came… I really need to finish building my team. Smith's been down my throat about it…" I sighed with relief.

"She's making you take on more as time goes by?" Kurusu asked.

"In a way, I guess she is…" I sighed, and he took my hand.

"I understand your pain, but you'll be able to get through it. Once the tension between housemates settles everything will be better I swear." Kurusu told me with tears streaming down his face.

With that out of the way, I could focus more on the dossiers. Muri seemed okay with another Arachne around at least, since both Bolt and Terra have to be at the office with me. I felt bad for Bolt though, she really seems to hate being cooped inside, but I have paperwork to do, reports to fill out and send in… and to be honest I'd have liked to be doing anything but. When lunch rolled around I let Bolt out to run around the interior courtyard while Terra and I hit the food court. She joined us about ten minutes after we'd sat down. We were soon joined by Hajime and his partner. He looked really worn out for some reason.

"Satogami-kun… I see you've had more luck than me at building a team." Hajime greeted me.

"What? Your dossiers suck?" I asked.

"In a bad way… none of them match my vision for the ideal team." he sighed.

"Just tell him you wanna compare dossiers." his partner scolded.

After lunch we went back to my office to see if any matched what he wanted. I got a look at his dossiers as well. He had one for an Elder Devil… experienced with weaponry of all forms it seemed. I looked more into her details, and apparently she's known for building unique weaponry that by the normal laws of physics shouldn't work but they do anyway. Strangely enough for an Elder Devil, seduction wasn't listed in her skills. That got me curious… but we'd have to fly to Romania to meet her, recruit her, and then bring her here to finalize the process.

"This one! A Nurse Slime… endless love to give, slimy touch that brings only healing, and a positive can-do attitude… she's perfect for my team!" Hajime cried holding one of the dossiers.

"Okay. I'm swiping this one then." I told him.

"You're a pal, Satogami-kun! I won't forget this favor!" Hajime told me before leaving with a wide grin on his face.

With the new dossier in hand, I quite easily convinced Kimihito to let Muri stay at his place while we went to Romania. That flight also taught me that Bolt does not do well with jets. Other than the sound of Bolt losing her guts every few minutes, the inside of the jet was nice, and it was private too so I had no annoying wait in line or buying tickets to deal with. A smooth ten hours and we arrived at the airport. Bolt was very glad to be off the jet. On the opposite, Terra had developed a like for flying. The drive to the nearby town was a bit bumpy, but Bolt got to enjoy the breeze since the vehicle was open top. There a liaison met up with us.

"So you're the sad sap that took up Alexandra's dossier…" the liaison sighed.

"Contain your enthusiasm, you might scare people…" I commented.

"Very funny. I'm gonna make this quick. Alexandra is up in that castle on the cliff there. Agents have tried to recruit her before, but they don't make it past the foyer. Apparently she's booby-trapped the entire castle with puzzles and traps." the liaison explained pointing to the very vague shape in the distance.

"So she's gonna mess with our heads…?" Bolt asked nervously.

"Relax. I'm good at puzzles." I assured Bolt, which seemed to ease her nerves a bit.

We took the vehicle up the dirt road taking roughly an hour to reach the castle. Evening was rolling around, so I made sure we all had flashlights and radios in case we got separated inside. The gate opened easily enough, but the foyer seemed to be a box with stairs going to the upper level of the wall. I failed to see how this was a puzzle.

"No doors… should I bust down some walls?" Terra asked.

"Not a smart idea. You could get hurt doing that, plus this place is old so any damage could cause a chain reaction of bad things to happen." I told her as I began walking to examine the walls giving a knock here and there. I stopped when I got a weird sound. I gave a few more to be sure of what I heard.

"Anything?" Bolt asked.

"Like I said, not a puzzle. She bricked up where the halls are supposed to be. Terra, punch this wall." I ordered placing my hand where I wanted her to punch.

In a single punch she knocked in the bricks revealing a hallway. Then a strange noise not unlike a PA system began scratching before clicking.

"Not bad, you're the first ones to figure it out." a woman's voice congratulated us.

"Are you Alexandra?" I asked, but got no response.

So we began heading inward and found one path littered with bear traps. The liaison had literally meant it when she said the halls had traps. Using my shoe I set one off, and continually used the first trap I set off the make the other ones go off as well. Once it was safe I signaled the girls to follow. The majority of the traps were basically testing if you were paying attention to where you were going. They were pathetically easy to disarm too. At where the doors of the audience hall should have been, there was poorly placed brick. I had Terra punch through, and we were greeted by the audience hall… turned into a messier than hell bedroom. Sitting in black lingerie with a computer in her lap was our target. Alexandra had long bleach white hair messily held up with a clothespin and ghostly pale skin. Her horns were red and protruded from the sides of her head going forward crowning her face. She also had glasses on and looked like she needed sleep.

"Are you Alexandra?" I asked and she looked over, took a moment to register us, and flipped out screaming.

"Y-Y-You people! How dare you break into a lady's room?!" she barked at us.

"Says the one registered in MON's system and should be expecting recruiters… so what's up with the traps?" I asked.

"To keep people AWAY! It's a pain in the ass to set up networks for companies when I keep getting interrupted by unwanted visitors!" Alexandra roared.

"So you ignore a business opportunity for something other than networking…?" Bolt asked.

"You'll be paid more than your current job if you come be on my response team. You won't have deadlines with me either." I told her.

"Really? No deadlines?" she asked skeptically.

"Maybe not totally free of them, but you won't have ridiculously close ones put on you." I replied.

"What'll be my work hours…?" she asked.

"Same as mine, since I'm team leader." I replied, and she got right up in my face.

"How can I trust you?" she asked.

"You'll have to take my word for it." I replied, and she scoffed at me.

"I refuse without proof that you aren't gipping me." Alexandra spoke with a huff.

"What do you consider proof?" I asked.

"Proper paperwork." she replied, which meant she'd have to be back in Japan to see that proof.

"Will you go with us to Japan to see the proof you want? I don't have it with us." I asked her.

"I refuse. No proof, no deal. You suits are all the same, trying to contract me without letting me read the fine print." she scoffed crossing her arms… and that pissed me off.

"Girls… guard the doors… not a word about what you're about to see to HQ…" I told the girls as I cracked my knuckles.

"What about the no-touch rule?" Bolt asked.

"We didn't see anything." Terra spoke with a grin.

"T-Terra-chan?!" Bolt exclaimed in shock.

"W-What are you gonna do to me…?" Alexandra asked looking afraid.

"Just a little thing the Demonic Fang liked to call… 'attitude adjustment'." I replied walking toward her.

It was dawn when we got back on the jet at the airport. Alexandra, who we dressed in sweat pants and a hoodie so she'd be somewhat decent, hadn't quite recovered from the effects of her attitude adjustment, but was compliant enough to get on the jet without a problem. So once her luggage was loaded, we were able to get on our way back to Japan. Bolt was shaking a bit, which led me to believe she was afraid of getting an attitude adjustment if she stepped out of line. In fact, her fear took her mind off of her air sickness. I had to pet her behind the ears to calm her down a bit, sort of letting her know I didn't have any intention of doing that to her. Terra was still giggling… making me believe that she's a sadist.

By the time we landed Alexandra had recovered and was barking right in my ear about how I was technically kidnapping and would see her in court and all that jazz… luckily she stopped when I brought up the fact she agreed to go with us and I had it recorded, even if she was under the influence of the attitude adjustment at the time. Smith was pretty impressed that I'd managed to make the "Shut-In Devil" come out of her castle. Just as I asked, the girls kept quiet about my method of making her cooperate, and it was Alexandra's word against hers. She couldn't argue with the pay either. So while she did despise me at the moment, she had no choice but to agree. My home was modified yet again, and she moved in. The fun part would be introducing Muri to her.

"Muri, this is Alexandra. She's one of my new teammates." I told her, and she squeezed my hand as she stared at her.

"H-Hello…" Muri spoke nervously.

"Don't trip over my network cables, I need to transfer my data to the new network that's here." Alexandra told her before walking off.

Overall I felt that it went well. Of course, like the shut-in she is, Alexandra didn't leave her room except for when it was time to eat. I just wish she didn't wear just a hoodie over her underwear around the house. I didn't want her to set a bad example for Muri. Dear god, is this what being a parent is like? I'm very concerned about Muri growing up properly. With how attached she was now despite the small amount of time we'd been together, I guess she did sort of see me as a parental figure. Of course, that thought immediately made me feel old even though I'm only nineteen. I would just have to focus on finding the last member to my team. One more, and I'd have my team of five including myself. Then it occurred to me… why would Alexandra need network cables?

I went to her room hearing mechanical noises. Upon opening the door, I saw a weird machine putting together weaponry. Alexandra was laughing psychotically as it worked. She was obviously using some kind of network to accomplish these algorithms in record time. I now knew why her second nickname was "weapon maniac". I closed the door, and just hoped she wouldn't accidentally make a bomb and blow up the house.

End Chapter 2 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: MON Team 7, Go!

It'd been a solid three months since recruiting Alexandra. In that time, Smith had continuously gotten onto me to find the final member of my team. I hated that she chose to single ME out when my coworkers still hadn't finished either. Summer was around the corner too. One day in the food court when I went to dump my tray I noticed a dossier file inside the can. I got curious and took the file with me back to my office. Inside it logged a new strain of Slime, one that seemed to target injured and sick people specifically. So this was technically a search & capture mission… addressed to Smith, how did I not see that one coming?

"Well, if our supervisor won't do it, we may as well pick up her slack." I sighed, and mobilized the girls for a road trip.

It took us way out into the countryside. I could only wonder what a slime like this would be doing targeting the sick. All of the anime and manga I've seen and read put a lot of ideas in my head, but not one that could be a concrete reason. Once at the village, we had to ask around about it. According to the locals, the perp had been sighted around the nursing home numerous times. So we began our search there. Of course, everything seemed normal… until we checked the perimeter. Part of the fence had a weird jelly residue on it, which would indicate Slime presence. I had Terra rip open the fence so we could continue to follow the trail of the residue. We eventually arrived at a small save where a dark blue slime had taken an elderly man. Her body was quite gifted, and her slime hair was kept shoulder length with a single long antenna that was currently on the old man's forehead.

"You are diabetic, and currently have early stages of cancer in your lungs due to smoking when you were younger." the slime told the old man.

"Is that so…? Is there anything you can do?" the old man asked her.

"If you permitted me to do so… I could attempt surgery to fix it…" the slime replied.

"Can you really do that?" I asked startling the two.

"MON operatives… oh no…" the old man spoke before having a coughing fit.

"Answer me. Can you really cure it?" I asked again.

"Yes… if I had access to the inside of his lungs… I am a Nurse Slime after all… so it's kind of my specialty..." she answered.

"I'll see if I can't get a surgeon team out here from HQ. If you can do that, then I want you to help him." I told her.

"Can you do that?" Bolt asked.

"I'm sure Smith will have it handled." I replied.

I phoned HQ, and sure enough Smith was fully willing to have a surgeon team come out to help with the procedure. By evening they arrived, and helped the Nurse Slime get access to the infected areas. The real reason she needed help was that while she could rapidly seal any wound made including broken bones and can cure even the worst disease in minutes she had no means of actually making the necessary cuts to get inside. Luckily with the surgeon team there, she was able to successfully cure the old man's cancer. Then came the all-important part of why we came out here in the first place.

"A-Are you going to deport me back to Russia…?" the nurse slime asked me.

"I'd like to recruit you, actually." I told her.

"Recruit me?" she spoke blinking in disbelief.

"Yeah. We wouldn't have to worry about injuries if you were on our team. A medic is as important if not more so than someone who can cook." I explained to her.

"You mean… it isn't weird that I'm a walking pharmacy?" she asked nervously.

"Not at all. I'm Agent Satogami. These are my teammates. We'd be grateful to have you on our team." I answered her.

"I… I happen to leave a mess wherever I go, too… a-and my body sometimes sucks up loose rocks from the ground… funny considering my body is almost thicker than molasses because of all the medical compounds in my body." she sighed.

"I might have a solution to that. Ever heard of a scuba suit?" I suggested, and in roughly a half-hour we had her up to her neck in a pitch black scuba diving suit.

"This is a great solution!" she exclaimed looking herself over.

"So, your name is…?" I asked.

"Oh! My apologies. My name is Seras. I… escaped here on a fishing boat when I managed to escape the testing facility in Russia." she answered me.

"So, what do you say to becoming the final member of my team? We really could use medical expertise like yours." I offered while extending my hand.

"If you'll have me." Seras replied shaking my hand.

We took her back to HQ to get everything handled. Smith about took my ear off since she's technically supposed to be captured, but still commended me for seeing potential and acting upon it. She said I reminded her of herself using a horrible analogy of when she stacked Kimihito's charges on him, which made me feel really bad for the guy. After a good few hours of being bored to death with her reminiscing, we managed to get the paperwork finished. Since Seras has to wear the suit at all times so her feet and hands don't get everything covered in slime, we just gave her a MON vest along with a fanny pack of medical utensils so she can do surgery herself if need be along with her usual healing.

When she moved in we had to get her special plastic bedding so she wouldn't soak into her bed with her exposed head. To my surprise, Muri wasn't all that scared of Seras. I was glad to see Muri building up confidence in the safety of the house. She was more openly affectionate towards me too, going as far as referring to me as her older brother. Muri even keeps an eye on Bolt when she goes into the yard, and sometimes plays fetch with her. Terra looked pretty content with how Muri was behaving too.

"Muri seems happy." I mentioned to Terra.

"Happier than she's ever been. MON tried to separate us at first… they still had us Large Breeds blacklisted, you know? I busted her out of her old homestay and that's how we really became fugitives. We only escaped that first time because Demonic Fang began a shootout with MON letting us get away unseen." Terra told me with a saddened grin.

"That explains how registering her under me was so fast compared to you four at least. So what was her other homestay like?" I asked her.

"They were treating her like a delicate little flower who couldn't do anything without help. It was insulting how little they let her do things for herself. Muri's a very intelligent girl, despite her size. You aren't like that at all, and I'm grateful for it." Terra answered with a happy sigh.

"I'm ex-Demonic Fang… so who knows, I might have unwittingly helped you escape from them." I told her.

"If you did or didn't, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it was you who came for us looking to recruit me instead of capture us. She can only smile because it was you who came." Terra scoffed hitting my shoulder.

"I'm going to change things in MON… even if I end up turning on the people I once considered allies." I told her while clenching my fists.

"Sometimes you have to make tough calls like that. When the time comes, I'll have faith in you as our leader." Terra told me.

Two weeks passed and sure enough Smith told me to check on Kimihito once more. This time I decided to take the group with me. Once at the door it flung open and Kimihito leapt out into my arms followed by a loud crash inside. The dust settled and once again some of his charges had crashed down the stairs.

"Seras, see to them and make sure they aren't hurt." I ordered and with a nod she hurried in to the pile of extraspecies.

"Satogami-san… nice to see you…" Kimihito chuckled nervously.

"I guess you've gotten a sixth sense for when danger is coming at you, huh? They'd have landed right on top of you." I told him.

"Yeah… guess it happens so often I am developing skills for it." he chuckled.

"I've tended to their injuries. They'll be okay." Seras reported with a salute.

"Seras?" Suu asked in confusion.

"Suu?" Seras replied.

We gathered in the living room and learned that Suu also escaped from the facility. It seems that they planned to do horrid things to her and when she escaped she busted Suu out too but got separated at some point. It was kind of funny to see Papi slightly jealous of how much Seras got Suu to talk fluently. My report was a green-lit one, meaning nothing wrong to report, and Papi continued to give dagger eyes at Seras until we left.

When we got back to HQ the building was under attack. The assailants… were all Demonic Fang. I had no choice but to open fire on them using knockout rounds. I gave orders to my team without even thinking twice. I started giving the girls Demonic Fang tactics and to my surprise they seemed to understand what I meant by them perfectly. The extraspecies that charged me were met with my Demonic Fang martial arts techniques. Within the hour we managed to capture all of the attackers. I made sure to confiscate their cyanide pills, even if Bolt just thought I wanted to cop a feel on them, because I knew exactly how missions like this went. With no means of escaping, they were all imprisoned and soon interrogated. Smith came to me an hour later.

"Satogami-kun… you couldn't have come at a better time today." Smith sighed.

"I'm guessing that's why you sent us off, because you knew we'd have the upper hand since I'm an expert on Demonic Fang tactics." I told her.

"I'll be honest, I just wanted to catch up on paperwork so the higher ups would stop nagging me. It just happened to play to our advantage. Now, as for the prisoners… we can't get anything out of them." Smith admitted bowing to me.

"Let me guess, you want me to see if I can't get something useful?" I asked.

"Please!" Smith pleaded.

"Okay… but you aren't allowed to dispute how I do things." I told her.

"Show a little restraint?" she asked.

"In the Demonic Fang, you never show mercy." I told, and she reluctantly agreed to my conditions.

They got me the tools I asked for, and to the interrogation room I went with Seras accompanying me to heal the injuries I was about to make on them. We entered the room and a Lizardfolk woman was cuffed to a chair. I tossed the chair away and then flipped the table over as Seras wheeled in the cart with all my tools on it.

"Ooh, flip the table more, bad cop…" she commented, and I slugged her right off the bat.

"Which commander ordered this?" I asked.

"Give me one reason I should tell you…" she snarked, and I hit her again.

"Tell me." I ordered.

"Screw yourself…" she growled

I looked through my many devices, and began to systematically run her through them. The one that made her crack was what the Demonic Fang calls the nutcracker, even if it's effective on both genders. She gave us the details of future attacks, but not the answer to the question I wanted to know. She did point us to the leader of the attack who would have that information though. So we had her taken back to her cell and brought in a Minotaur with long blue hair. I knew her… her name was Mercedes.

"Well knock me up… how ya been, Ryuji?" Mercedes chuckled.

"Better than you're looking. Who ordered this attack?" I asked.

"Why would I tell a turncoat like you?" she laughed and I touched her jaw.

"Mercedes. I can break you or you can tell me." I offered her.

"So you can deport us as fast as possible, right?" she chuckled.

"Oh we aren't deporting you. Why would I let them do that when you can give us an edge on those upcoming attacks?" I told her.

"You think we'd help MON?! They must have busted that head of yours when they brainwashed you!" Mercedes laughed.

"Cut the crap, Mercedes, we both know what the others will do if you're found." I told her, and her laugh stopped immediately.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Demonic Fang doesn't tolerate failure. You of all people should know that. Why do you think they give you cyanide pills? It's succeed or die. That ensures that people can't go turncoat. Fail your mission, and fail to die, their orders are to kill you on sight immediately assuming you squealed." I told her.

"It's better than being a lapdog to them…" Mercedes growled.

"I'm not a lapdog… I'm here to make changes from the inside. I'm pretty sure that Shoh attempted to tell you all this." I told her.

"Oh? What's changed then…?" Mercedes scoffed.

"I haven't been here long enough for long term changes to occur. I will make things better for extraspecies though. It's only being here that I can say I don't have to worry about being stabbed in the back if I screw up." I told her while grabbing hold of her right horn.

"Gonna rough me up if I don't cooperate, huh? Good luck, because we both know I'm a masochist…" she chuckled.

"Yeah, but I know you hate being filthy too. Seras, expose your hand." I ordered.

"Why?" Seras asked.

"You're the perfect tool to make her give in. Start covering her in your slime." I ordered, and I felt Mercedes jerk a bit as I held her horn tighter.

I watched her face as Seras began nervously exposing Merc's body to run her exposed hand on her. Merc was squeaking trying to get away but to no avail. She really can't stand being dirty, especially if she has no ready access to a shower. After five minutes of petting Merc finally screamed to stop.

"It was Kurt, okay?! Kurt ordered it! He got sick of the way the others were doing things, killed them, and then seized control of the Demonic Fang! He's the sole leader now and refuses to appoint any other leaders! Just please, wash me off! Wash me off, wash me off right now!" Mercedes begged flailing in the chair.

I had her taken to the showers to be washed, and then I reported to Smith to give her the information to send the top brass. She was really disappointed in me for my methods, but they got the answers they were looking for. I was inevitably called into the top brass's meeting room to be questioned about my methods. In that room I felt a disturbance in the force, because there were politicians along with the top brass.

"Agent Ryuuji Satogami. Would you care to explain your actions in that room?" one of the suits asked me while footage of me torturing the Lizardfolk girl played on a projector.

"She was uncooperative, as was to be expected of a Demonic Fang member. I would know the training, as I am a former member, which I'm sure you all know since you're the ones who hired me. So needless to say I did not use kid gloves with her and gave her the full extent of my ferocity." I explained to them.

"Our interspecies exchange bill forbids touching them." another suit scolded me.

"That in-lies the problem, sir. By alienating our own abilities to act in situations that call for it, it allows organizations such as the Demonic Fang to have the upper hand. They could care less about that bill's rules. If a human has to beat an extraspecies to get answers they'll do it without a second thought. Why do we disregard it? It's because we believe them to be equal to us and not above nor below. They can never be equal to us if we give them special treatment. I agree with facilities to accommodate them, but to have facilities expressly for them is segregation. The states went through that phase and look where they are now. I suggest we skip that so we don't have those same problems. I believe we'll be better off that way leaping straight to integration." I lectured them.

"Satogami-san… are you saying we went about it all wrong?" the only woman suit of the group asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." I answered her.

"How would you rewrite the bill then?" she asked.

"There's a lot about the exchange bill I agree with, but a lot that I don't. Forcing our culture so they abandon their own is wrong, in most cases. First off, I'd get rid of that stupid no-touching clause because it is currently being abused profusely. Secondly, I'd do away with the no love clause. Seriously, that one is pure stupidity, it's same-sex marriage all over again. There's no reason to regulate it nor a reason to have a separate classification of marriage in the first place. People are going to love who they please, deal with it. If I want to marry and sleep with an Arachne, that's my business. If I want to sleep with a Dragonewt, that's my business. Furthermore, the way you're blacklisting species because they become violent… it's because they don't want to lose their culture. Large Breed Arachne are territorial and short-tempered, sorry, that's just how they are, but Terra is an example of one who can be friendly." I lectured further, and one of the politicians slammed his fists on the table.

"How can you talk so frankly?! Do you not even realize that you could be fired for speaking this way?!" he roared at me.

"Oh… looks like someone didn't get the memo. I never wanted this job, in fact I can outright say I hate everyone in this room with a burning passion with no fear of repercussion that I don't already know can happen to me. I'm for equality across both specie and gender. If you don't think they're worthy of being equal… I'll punch you right in your politician shnoz." I told him with a smile killing his nerve immediately.

"Satogami-san… you've stepped far past your boundaries…" one of the brass members growled.

"Look at my face. Does it look like I care?" I scoffed at him.

"Satogami-san… I'll be taking your words right to the ones who can change it." the woman suit spoke.

"Y-You can't be serious?!" another of the brass asked in shock.

"His words are blunt, to-the-point, free of corruption, and are coming from someone who deals with extraspecies on a daily basis. If they won't listen to someone who knows first-hand what the bill means when interacting with extraspecies, then who will they listen to?" the woman told them with a smile.

"T-Then you mean to tell me he'll go without punishment?!" another of the politicians asked.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. In fact, he deserves to be praised for his work ethic. He's continuously praised for helping extraspecies of coworkers without a second thought, and doesn't even flinch when he approaches even the strangest ones. He makes perfect eye contact and talks as if they were an actual person. For an ex-Demonic Fang member, he's pretty beloved by his coworkers." the woman answered him.

When I walked out of there, I held my head high. Someone actually got it, the way I think of extraspecies. The rest of the guys in the room were completely butt hurt about the decision to praise me. Bolt was really glad I wasn't punished. The whole team was waiting for me outside the meeting room. I thought about the woman's words, and looked around as we went to my office. To my surprise, my coworkers were smiling and waving at me. I really was having an effect on my coworkers.

The following day, Smith gave me the lecture of the century. She'd apparently heard from the top brass that I told them off. My only argument was that I was honest with my feelings. That's what happens when you ask for my honesty, I deliver no matter who you are. Sure enough we were interrupted by a member of the top brass. Smith stood at attention and yanked my arm making me salute to him too.

"What brings you here, sir?" Smith asked.

"I've… been asked by the government to choose an example of an extraspecies loving a human… on equal terms." he answered.

"Really? I know just the man." Smith told him shooting a wink at me as I said a silent prayer for Kimihito.

Sure enough she had me pick up Kimihito so he could give his opinion on his homestay charges to some officials. My team was also staked in charge of ensuring his safety. That led me to believe that the Demonic Fang intended to strike sooner than we anticipated. Without a doubt, especially if Kurt was now in charge, they'd try something to force their ideals into the meeting. Once the meeting began, of course a barrage of lead questions came at him from the politicians. Kimihito actually surprised me by avoiding the answers they were fishing for. Like me, he was brutally honest with how he felt. When it ended the room filled with applause, and I couldn't help but smile at the defeated looks of the fishers.

About a week passed, and abnormally the attack set for that day didn't happen. That gave me a cause for concern. I noticed teams were being sent on missions too. Smith came to my office one day and looked ghostly pale.

"Satogami-kun… Kimihito has been kidnapped by the Demonic Fang…" Smith told me.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"All we know is they want certain changes to the exchange bill change or else they'll end his life." Smith answered.

"I can think of several places… can you get me a rifle with above-average range?" I asked.

"The best rifle on the market today was designed to be used by Monoeye, why?" Smith asked.

"Kurt would have you believe otherwise, but I'm the best sniper in the Demonic Fang… well, when I was still part of their ranks I was." I answered.

"You can snipe?" Smith asked.

"Who do you think was shooting Tio when you captured me?" I answered.

"So you're that hotshot… well I'll be damned. Explains why you were blown almost to hell when Zombina got to you." Smith laughed.

They got me the rifle and then custom fitted my team with armored suits. We were preparing to go to one of several different locations. Kurt was smart, but at the same time was an egomaniac. I could use that to our advantage without a doubt. If he thinks he's untouchable, then I could easily put him in his place. It was time for Team 7 to move out.

End Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: MON vs Demonic Fang – Operation Saving Grace

The mission briefing was long and boring. I preferred Demonic Fang's where they said don't die, know who we're shooting, and that was it. I managed to get through without falling asleep though. Then it was time for me to mark out where the bases were located. It kinda sucked ratting them out, but because Kurt was involved I had no choice. That psychopath will do anything and everything if it means he'll get what he wants. My team was put in charge of the best hidden hideout… designated by MON as Invisible Hell. The Demonic Fang just calls it Last Home though, since you can only get in let alone find if you know how. The only way to find out how is to be in the Demonic Fang. So it'd be up to me to get us in if Kurusu were inside that fortress.

I outlined the positions we were to take after dark fell as we made our way to the shoreline where Last Home is located. Naturally my team was dumbfounded because nothing was there… but I knew better. They hid and didn't let themselves be known as I took a high vantage point. I aimed for the two far off stalagmites from the coral reef, which is where the center should be. That meant roughly twenty feet left and right of them are the first two watchtowers. Now those watchtowers are only partially watching out for intruders… the rest of their attention is spent keeping the invisible field up. This was accomplished by having a Backbeard in each tower. Taking out just one would cause the field to give way, because it is a big castle to keep cloaked 24/7.

Smith told my team to use non-lethals as we take the base… a mistake I wasn't about to let my team make. Before we made our way here, I made us stop at a gun shop to buy lethal ammo. If you raid the Demonic Fang, you'd better be packing bite instead of bark. I instructed my team to load their lethal ammo, and I growled when they mentioned Smith's orders.

"Listen up, team. Smith doesn't know the Demonic Fang like I do. They will shoot to kill. You will get shot and die if you don't pull the trigger first. I don't want mercy on them, because they won't show mercy to us either. They won't take pity, they won't pause, they will just shoot. We aren't killing for killing's sake, we're killing because if we don't they sure as hell won't return the favor to us. So I'll say it again: Load lethal ammunition and prepare for combat." I growled at them through the radio.

"Yes sir!" they collectively replied.

I focused my scope on an estimated location of a tower. I slowed my breathing, put on my noise-canceling earphones, thought of the kill, and pulled the trigger. The silencer didn't totally mask the sound, but it did a good enough job that it didn't disturb anything in the remote area. There was a scream and the castle became translucent as a Backbeard fell off to the beach below. I gave the order to move and Terra wasted no time barreling for the doors smashing them open in her new anti-personnel armor. Bolt was close behind with single-hand firearms as Seras remains near them with a shotgun. She was a slime, so she wouldn't have to worry much about being shot, making her the perfect tactical medic. I continued to snipe as Alexandra began printing new weapons from the van's modified middle, which I sort of decided to keep our little secret from Smith.

The firefight got heavier demanding I take out the heavy-duty members to take some of the heat off the girls. I took out those Backbeards as quickly as I could get a good shot at them. Alexandra put on earphones like mine readying a rocket launcher of some kind, and then the tip began to glow red.

"What is that…?" I asked.

"Tactical Field Laser… T.F.L. for short…" Alexandra giggled before firing an immense beam from it taking out a wall exposing the firefight inside giving me a good field of view of the enemy.

"…you made that why?" I asked taking shots at the sneakier combatants to further ease the pressure on Bolt, Terra, and Seras.

"When I did a job for Russia to cut down on their monster mafia problem they gave me a copy of the schematic for it since they couldn't get it to work. This situation gave me the perfect excuse to make one." Alexandra giggled charging it and firing once more.

The firefight raged more as I provided cover fire and Alexandra went Metal Gear on them with her T.F.L. weapon. After a good hour of fighting Bolt gave the all clear allowing me and Alexandra to get close. There were thousands of scratches on Terra's armor, but no breaks or injuries. Bolt had a few holes in her outfit, but no terrible wounds thanks to Seras.

"How you feeling, Bolt?" I asked her.

"Getting shot with real bullets hurts way worse than non-lethals… nothing serious thanks to Seras though." Bolt whined.

"Just be glad they didn't hit your vitals so I had an easier time healing the wounds so you could keep going." Seras sighed ignoring the literal hundreds of holes in her outfit.

"Okay. Search the area for the hostage, I'm checking the catacombs." I ordered.

Once I went down those stairs I could smell it… Irish ale, fresh too. There were drag marks in the dust too, which told me that Kurt or at least his right hand extra species had dragged Kimihito down here during the chaos. I did the smart thing and activated night vision goggles instead of using a flashlight. If I got into a sniper fight that'd put me at a giant disadvantage. The usual traps were in place too, which was just a minor hindrance to me since I knew how to diffuse them. Once down there I narrowly evaded a shot, likely a warning shot. Some of the spotlights were on too forcing me to take off my goggles.

"Well, well, well, Ryuji-kun… to think we'd be meeting on opposite ends of our barrels like this a second time…" a voice laughed, and it belonged to only one man… Kurt.

"Give it up Kurt. Hand him over and turn yourself in." I told him.

"You don't really think I'd do that, do you?" Kurt laughed.

"Figured I'd see if the bloodbath put you in your place." I scoffed.

"Please, there are millions of extra species who will fight MON and the stupidity of their exchange bill… I won't be the first and I certainly won't be the last." Kurt chuckled.

I took the opportunity to rush to a stalagmite for cover evading his shots. He was using a submachinegun, which told me it was his right hand extra species that fired at me when I entered. Perfect, two targets to worry about…

"You can take your death like a man, Ryuji-kun… after all, you were once our brother in arms." Kurt chuckled.

"Kurt, the way you do things is wrong and you know it. It isn't what the Demonic Fang stood for." I told him.

"Those old farts had no idea how to make change happen! My way is the only way that we can change how extra species are treated!" Kurt barked.

I took a pot shot at him but missed as a shot cut my cheek open from a higher angle. I wasn't getting a good shot at him so long as his sniper was in place. I'd have to finagle a way to pinpoint her location if I wanted any shot at taking Kurt down.

"Come on, Ryuji-kun… don't you want to save this sad sack the right way? He has all those beautiful girls that love him and would gladly have his children if he asked… but that bill keeps him from accepting their feelings!" Kurt barked.

"Kurt, I'll tell you again, this isn't the right way to do it. We've already set the cogs of change in motion." I growled rolling to another stalagmite.

"Heh… so naïve… you think that just because you and this guy said some motivational stuff that'll get them to approve changes? You always were a dreamer, Ryuji-kun, but the dreams must end here…" Kurt laughed.

I heard a noise in the upper area similar to reloading. I have to take a chance. I popped up aimed for a split second, and busted Kurt's left knee with a shot before ducking again just dodging a shot from his sniper. Kurt's screams of agony were music to my ears since he always boasts about how untouchable he is. I then heard his sniper drop down to our level.

"Boss, are you okay?!" a girl voice asked.

"Ha… hahaha… not a bad shot, Ryuji-kun, using the time she's reloading to get a surprise shot on me… well you won't get a second one…" Kurt laughed nervously.

Her voice told me exactly who she was. His sniper was indeed Nadine the Mountain Lamia, who also happens to be his right hand extra species. The rounds with me wouldn't even scratch her because Mountain Lamias developed scales tough enough to slither across rocks all day without losing their beauty due to years of seclusion in caves and the like. I'd have to find another way to taking her out.

"Well, Ryuji-kun… seems I couldn't convince you… but maybe an old friend of yours can…" Kurt chuckled snapping his fingers.

I didn't understand what he meant until someone grabbed me by the neck slamming me on the floor. The light made her glisten like nuts. The one holding me was a Black Slime that we'd kept below the base as a last resort… I always called her Death because she could literally dissolve anything, being a Black Slime. Her grip was really strong, which told me Kurt had outfitted her with something similar to Seras's anti-slime outfit so she wouldn't accidentally start dissolving me. She looked hella pissed too…

"Ryuji Satogami… you lied to me…" Death growled at me.

"N-Not the time, Death…" I choked out as she tightened her grip.

"You said that you would help create a world where humans and slimes of all color can live together…" Death growled.

"I'm… trying to do that… just not in the way I originally planned…" I told her trying to pry her fingers off my throat.

She lifted me from the ground and slammed me against the wall as Kurt laughed. She wasn't choking me now, but she was hammering away at my gut with her fists. Kurt laughed as she rag dolled me around the room continuing to beat on me. I kept trying to reason with her even though I was really reeling from her attacks. Hell hath no fury like a Black Slime scorned.

"Give up, Ryuji-kun, there's nothing you can do to hurt her… she is the epitome of an invincible soldier…" Kurt laughed.

"Fuck you…" I growled lying pinned under Death's foot.

I couldn't move at all because of her onslaught of attacks. She stood there readying to punch me one final time when a burst of water splashed Death knocking her off me. I weakly looked up and saw Alexandra holding a literal water cannon. Terra then rushed up and pulled me back as Seras opened fire on Kurt and Nadine with twin pistols making them take cover. Bolt used the opportunity to sprint the gap, grab Kimihito, and leap back narrowly evading return fire from Kurt as he roared angrily. Terra put me on her thorax and carried me back up to the surface. On the way up a man with blood red hair wearing a black trench coat over his MON uniform passed us. He had a briefcase with him and a vampire girl was right behind him dressed a similar way. When we got out of the base I was immediately placed on a treatment bed for Seras to start treating me and Kimihito as they cut his binds off.

"Why'd you go in there without backup let alone your team?" Smith scolded standing by the treatment bed.

"Fuck you that's why." I scoffed.

"You don't change at all do you?" Zombina growled.

"Stand down, it's his way of saying he didn't want to risk his team." Smith sighed with a slight smile putting a hand on Zombina's shoulder.

"You had them worried." Doppel chuckled.

"You were super worried too though." Tia told her making her blush hitting her side.

"What's important is that we got Darling back and can return him home. Without further ado, mission accomplished!" Smith smiled smacking my shoulder causing heavy pain since it was my dislocated shoulder she hit.

I never did learn what happened to Kurt or Nadine, but apparently MON had taken Death into extreme custody placing her in a cell not even a Black Slime will be able to dissolve their way out of. They're apparently going to try and get rid of the toxins inside of her so that she becomes harmless. What I do know is that I was promoted to Agent 1st Class, along with my team. Two major changes made to the bill already are that consensual adult relationships are being allowed, at least on a trial basis, and that they're going to begin integrating extra species youths into our school systems so Muri got to start attending school. I'm still recovering from what Seras couldn't fix up, namely my ribs, but on the bright side I was given some time off as a result of the mission success. Muri had really gotten attached to us now that I was able to remain at home for a while.

"Onii-chan, I got a 100 on my test!" Muri exclaimed showing me a paper.

"You did a great job." I told her while gently patting her head making her giggle blushing.

When I finally recovered I was called to the bigwigs meeting room again. To my surprise the man and vampire girl I'd seen that day were there. They looked particularly happy to see me.

"Welcome, Satogami-kun…" one of the bigwigs addressed me.

"So… what's this about?" I asked.

"This man is Hideyoshi Nobunaga… the founder of MON thanks to his great influence on politics… he had a particular interest in meeting you." one of the bigwigs nervously answered.

"Founder…? This guy…? He can't be older than 40." I pointed out.

"I'm 32, thank you. I founded MON on the basis that if I could fall in love and have a stable relationship with a vampire, then who couldn't?" Nobunaga chuckled as the vampire girl blushed clinging to his arm.

"So why'd you want to see me?" I asked him.

"I have a very simple question to ask you." he answered with a grin.

"That is?" I asked.

"Do you believe that we should allow polygamy if all members involved consent to it? I know that you enjoy the cultures of many extra species, and many of them promote polygamy… so I wanted your thoughts." he asked with, I swear to god, the straightest face I've ever seen.

"Well… normally that's really illegal… but I'm pretty sure we can work a way around it somehow… politicians are really good at rallying the people's support on stuff like that, right?" I nervously answered.

"Hahahahaha! A fine answer!" Nobunaga laughed.

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"I'm glad someone sees it my way. You see, I'm not just seeing my vampire lover here, but roughly seven other extra species as well. All of them consented, so it should be fine, correct?" Nobunaga asked with a wide grin.

"You asked me because you yourself have a harem?!" I asked in shock.

"Indeed. It's be far more convenient for those that suffered from my employees' idiocy if they didn't have to choose between their charges." Nobunaga chuckled.

"So this was your plan all along?" I asked.

"Hated gonna hate." he chuckled in response.

A few weeks passed after that meeting. I noticed that there was a slight increase in coworker pregnancies and engagements. That gave me some pretty scary images of what might happen. It seems that the change on polygamy got passed faster than I thought it would. That night was like any other… until it began to thunder and lightning in the middle of the night. In seconds Bolt was in my room and trembling under my covers. She was really clinging to me this time too.

"You going to be okay, Bolt?" I asked.

"Gunfire is nothing to this… I just can't get over it…" Bolt whimpered with drooped ears.

"I understand." I told her.

"Sir… can I speak casually?" Bolt asked me.

"You know how I feel about formalities." I answered.

"Thank you… recently they added changes to the bill… they repealed some things, added new things… and… one of them was encouraging a romantic relationship…" Bolt told me.

"Really?" I asked her.

"Yeah… some even talked about harems… I didn't know how to react when some of the others said I was lucky being in your team… I hadn't considered the possibility of it at all." Bolt nervously answered.

"Well I'm not too big on the idea of harems. To me it's more or less a cop out for an inability to decide on one girl." I sighed.

"If you had to decide between us, would you be able to choose?" Bolt asked me and that was when I got nervous.

"I haven't thought about that." I answered, which in of itself is a cop out answer.

"I wouldn't mind… just don't leave any of us behind…" Bolt asked clinging tighter pressing her breasts on me.

"I'm all about no man left behind." I answered hastily trying not to think about her soft chest.

It was probably at that point that I realized this was happening because of my big mouth. Eventually I was able to fall asleep and the next morning everyone but Muri seemed a little on edge. It was strange, but once I looked at the calendar's little moon phase chart I realized why. Tonight was a full moon, and with nothing technically stopping them if they had feelings for me they could completely come at me full speed. The thought of it while not altogether unpleasant would still result in my death if they all came at once. I managed to retain purity during the full moons of my time in the Demonic Fang, but the sounds of the orgies that used to ensue still haunts my memory. Whether or not I'd be able to escape tonight with both my purity and life intact would remain to be seen.

The day seemed to go by as usual, there was a ton of paperwork to do, Smith would try to get us to help her out, and at lunch I'd help my coworker vent his troubles. That afternoon I had the girls go ahead of me… because I had shopping to do. I didn't expect to be able to escape, so I thought I may as well prepare for the worst case scenario. I got both protection and pills that I could easily slip them. I didn't want to take any chances. Once I'd mustered enough courage, I nervously went home.

I opened and closed the front door as quietly as humanly possible. Never had I felt so insecure in my own home before. It was similar to being underleveled and entering a high level dungeon knowing death could be right around the corner. I had never felt the hairs crawling on the back of my neck so much before. The floor decided that it was going to be my mortal enemy that night too creaking slightly as I walked carefully. Oddly enough, no sign of the girls. Normally that'd put me at ease, showing just how strong some people's resilience to such urges can be, but not in the slightest tonight if how they were acting this morning indicated anything.

I snuck to my room and flinched seeing Bolt half-asleep in nothing but a T-shirt on my bed. If I was lucky I might be able to slip in undetected while she's too tired to do anything. I decided not to risk it and find a safe spot in the house to sleep until morning. Sadly, there weren't very many places to hide now that I thought about it. Where in the house would they never think to look? Sadly in my thoughts I'd failed to notice the presence behind me now feeling my abs.

"Welcome home…" Alexandra giggled.

"A-Alexandra… y-you aren't seriously feeling the full moon's effects are you?" I asked knowing the answer by the way her hands felt me over.

"Well, maybe a little… I had a bit to drink earlier too…" she giggled hiccupping.

"Any way to dissuade you?" I asked.

"Not even if you were a girl…" she grinned tugging me toward my room.

"H-Hey, Bolt's trying to sleep in there…" I told her trying to keep my voice down.

"It's your room though… the best place to make love." Alexandra smirked.

She then showed remarkable strength flinging me into the room landing right on top of Bolt with my face in her breasts. Bolt let out a somewhat tired moan as she grabbed hold of me digging her claws into my shirt.

"So rough… it's my first time, so you have to be gentle…" Bolt smiled with lust in her still groggy eyes.

"You can't escape this, boss…" Alexandra smiled snatching the grocery bag from my grip.

"W-Wait, at least have the common decency to use those…" I told them as Bolt blew in my ear ripping my shirt open.

"Oh, you don't want us getting knocked up so soon that you don't get to enjoy us more down the road, huh? You're so sweet…" Alexandra giggled.

She was completely misunderstanding my intentions, more than likely because she's hammered, and it didn't help that the moon is making her horny as well. Before I knew it Seras had formed on my left and Terra was hanging from the ceiling. I didn't even notice them come in. This was it… this was where I was going to die… all I could do was pray that they were merciful.

Morning came with cicadas chirping outside. I glanced left, then I glanced right, and then at the ceiling. It was a miracle… I was still alive. I sat up and pain shot up through me. I have red scratches all over me, which told me I wasn't just feeling things when pain rang through my body in the midst of it. The girls were unconscious around me, but luckily I managed to sneak around them and start showering despite the pain it was causing my wounds. Once I'd rinsed to get ready for the tub I shuddered when Seras suddenly started rubbing my back to begin healing my wounds.

"Sorry about last night, sir. Even I couldn't hold myself together because I knew the laws changed." Seras sighed continuing to heal me up.

"Exactly how long did you all take turns on me?" I asked shedding a tear as she healed the larger scratches on my chest.

"I think right to morning. Bolt was on you the most though... she's got incredible stamina." Seras joked.

"They at least used the stuff right?" I asked.

"I believe so. You can interrogate them once they wake up." Seras answered finishing off the last of my injuries.

Once I rinsed off her slime I got in the tub. Seras came back with her wet suit on and started massaging my shoulders. It seemed that Seras really wanted to apologize for taking part in the assault on my body. After my shower Bolt was the next one to approach me. She was red in the face and fidgety. Before I could say anything she flopped on her back posing like a dog showing their belly. I guessed that that was her way of apologizing. I told her she doesn't have to do anything more than say sorry, and she subsequently became angry with Alexandra who told her I'd only accept that as an apology.

At work Terra refused to make eye contact, which told me she didn't want to apologize even though she knew she should. She didn't break until lunch time when Alexandra prodded her about her thoughts on rape. Smith then gave me a tranquilizer gun for nights of the full moon, which she conveniently forgot to give me. The rest of the day was a little awkward. That made Bolt's question come up too, now that I'd effectively done everyone but Muri, who was still oblivious to what'd happened. The next day I got called to Smith's office, again…

"Satogami-kun, perfect timing." Smith smiled.

"Let me guess, I'm checking on Kimihito-san?" I asked.

"Bingo!" Smith giggled.

"What excuse do you have this time?" I asked.

"I need to file special paperwork for a fellow agent who got a little too friendly with her partner." Smith answered.

Whether I wanted to or not, I had to go. I took Alexandra with me this time since she hadn't gotten to yet. Once there we could hear the commotion from the front door. I heard stomping and immediately tackled Alexandra to the left as the door flew off its hinges followed quickly by Papi and Suu fleeing from an evident battle going on inside. Peeking inside it seemed that Miia and Centorea were in a raging brawl. I didn't have a clue what the fight was about, but I sounded an air horn startling both girls.

"Mind explaining what's happening?" I asked.

"They're fighting over who's going to be his first wife." Lala sighed coming out from a wardrobe, likely to hide from the fight.

"I somehow figured that'd be what you'd fight over…" I sighed walking to the living room where Kimihito had been smacked over the face by Miia's tail more than likely.

"Satogami-san… sorry about this…" Kimihito chuckled.

"Glad you didn't get hurt worse trying to stop their fighting." I told him while helping him up.

"Darling… did that… happen during our fight?" Miia asked him.

"Wish we'd brought Seras now." Alexandra spoke examining the red mark on his face.

"Well… this won't do if all of you start fighting over positions in a harem. So do me a favor and just draw straws or something, okay?" I told them.

"It'd be luck-based… but at least it'd be fair…" Centorea sighed.

"I was here first…" Miia whined.

"You'll be first for other things too if I have to fill out more paperwork than I have to, got it?" I warned her.

"Understood…" Miia whimpered.

"You're being a little hard on them aren't you?" Kimihito asked.

"I want to save you the trouble of having a battle royal for positions, because I know it's almost impossible for you to choose too." I answered.

"S-Sad but true…" he groaned with a slight smile.

Once the visit was over and we returned home a weird scene was playing out. For whatever reason Seras had Bolt on her hands and knees with a leash attached to her collar. Bolt was stunned and deep red as Seras stood just as still. I sighed and put my coat on the rack trying to avoid jumping to conclusions.

"Um… t-this isn't what it looks like…" Seras managed to choke out.

"Then what is it?" Alexandra giggled.

"M-Muri lost something and we're trying to find it…" Bolt nervously blurted.

"…and that constitutes a leash and being on your hands and knees?" I asked and Bolt started to cry.

"I'm sorry!" Bolt cried leaping to my waist only to be jerked back by the leash.

"My bad…" Seras panicked dropping the leash.

"Listen, if it bothers you that much, I'm just not looking for a committed relationship right now. I'm still on MON's technical shit list too, in case you forgot how I landed this job in the first place. I'm definitely flattered, don't get me wrong, and you're all beautiful women, but I'm just now in a position to be looking for love." I explained to her.

"W-When… will you be ready…?" Bolt asked with puppy dog eyes.

"When I don't have to watch my back for people waiting for me to slip up." I answered gently patting her head.

"Told you that'd be his answer." Terra chuckled walking into the room.

"Oh, you made bets?" Alexandra smirked.

"I just know what kind of guy he is. He's ex-Demonic Fang. If he gets romantically involved with us before he can lay his past to rest that'll be putting us in far greater danger than being his team. The Demonic Fang isn't going to go away just because we took out one bigwig. He has Muri to worry about too, and for the most part she's oblivious to all of this." Terra scoffed.

"Thanks for understanding." I sighed.

I felt bad rebuffing their feelings, but it was just like Terra said. Not all of the Demonic Fang's bigwigs walk the light of day. In fact, the founders live in pitch black shadow pulling the strings from the abyss they call their home. No one knows their names or who they're masquerading as. The Demonic Fang can recover from anything so long as they remain at large. Working for MON and actually having made more impact than the Demonic Fang in its entirety… gave me quite the advantage. I could attempt using MON's network to try and find out who those bigwigs are… and put an end to the Demonic Fang.

End Chapter 4 


	5. Chapter 5: Family Bonding

**Chapter 5: Family Bonding**

My name is Kanji Bando, 52, employee at MON. I was offered a job after stopping a rampaging extraspecies from harming some campers barehanded. I was unemployed at the time so I figured may as well do something new. My first partner Saki is a blue-skinned Oni and is as tall as I am. She's wet behind the ears when it comes to dealing with people though. She also tends to jump the gun on suspicious extraspecies without thinking.

My other teammates are Shira, a Mothman girl, and Ivy, a rather "affectionate" Alraune. I couldn't help myself, as these two are troublemakers too. Shira has a short temper and Ivy is… shall we say "indiscreet" with her cravings for "partners". I wound up recruiting them hoping to rehabilitate them. Wouldn't you know it, not a week after they joined they started calling me "dad" because I happen to be on the older side. At the least there's affection behind it… at least I hope it's affection, anyway.

Ever since Satogami-kun came, things haven't quite been the same. A lot's changed actually, especially after the incident with the Demonic Fang. He certainly had us worried since he got beaten up so bad. Of course he's fine now. He's really got an idea of what he wants to do in this job that he aims to realize. He's the opposite of me who doesn't really know where I want to go with this job. He's great with kids too, which you wouldn't have expected from a former Demonic Fang member. Sometimes I wish I could be more like him, with nerves of steel and a will that doesn't bow.

"Satogami-kun. Can I ask something?" I asked him during break.

"Shoot." he replied retrieving his drink from the vending machine.

"If you were feuding with your child, and you were on the bad side of the argument, how would you handle reconciling?" I asked.

"I'd start by admitting I was wrong. Can't argue if you come to the wall that is a unanimous decision." he told me.

"I see. So that really is the only way." I laughed nervously.

"Kids aren't idiots you know. We aren't going to be kids forever either. Some wise up sooner than others too. Some of us know what we want to do from the start, others figure that out later in life. If your kid's an adult then don't treat them like a kid, treat them like the adult they've become." he lectured, or at least to me it sounded like a lecture.

His words were painful for me, because I knew them already. I lost my wife twenty years ago, and had a falling out with my daughter over it. She changed her legal name and I haven't seen her since. She went from being a sweet child to being a delinquent during middle school. She kept telling me the kids deserved it, but I never believed her. We'd have nightly arguments over her behavior. I never raised my hand to her, but there were times she brought me close to doing so.

I guess that's what made me want to set my troublemaking teammates straight or help them get through their problems. All this time I always thought it was my fault that my girl turned sour. I blamed myself for everything, including my wife's death.

Smith-san called me to her office one afternoon. She looked to be in a serious mood. I was even instructed to close the door behind me.

"Bando-san, I never wanted to ask this of a new agent but everyone experienced with it is busy at the moment including myself. I need you to go retrieve a homestay that's suddenly become violent toward their host." Smith-san ordered me.

"Violent?" I asked.

"We got a call about things breaking like a real fight is going on. There's little time to waste." Smith-san told me handing me a vanilla envelope and a clip of tranq bullets for my sidearm.

I gathered my team and hurried to the residence where it was going down. We got there and the fight seemed to still be going. The door was locked so I busted it down with my shoulder. In the living room a Minotaur girl was grappling with a young woman with long wavy black hair. The entire room was a mess and the woman had many injuries on her. I signalled Saki to rush and pull her away. I didn't want to fire if I didn't have to.

"Don't look at me, I'm only slightly stronger than the average human." Ivy shrugged as the Minotaur began to overpower Saki.

"I forgot my pistol." Shira admitted.

I was forced to take out my gun and fire. She didn't go down even after three shots of concentrated tranquilizer. I unloaded the whole clip by the time she threw Saki through the wall and into the yard. She charged me and without thinking I locked hands with her and flipped her over my shoulder putting her through the dining room table. She roared getting back up continuing to come at me. I kept blocking without retaliating because I wanted to avoid being reprimanded, but she wasn't showing any signs of fatigue.

"Bando-san, I got word from Smith! She's authorized you to take out the target by any means you deem necessary!" I heard Satogami-kun's voice call from outside.

I couldn't have asked for better news. I didn't want to, but I had no choice. I employed my knowledge of defensive martial arts and wrestling on her. She had strength, but no skill at all. I dislocated both of her arms and proceeded to lock her into a sleeper headlock. She struggled for another five minutes before finally succumbing and passing out from lack of air. I'd heard that Minotaurs were tough, but that was completely insane.

"We did it!" Shira exclaimed.

"No thanks to you two…" Saki groaned.

"Sorry. She was beyond our skill level." Ivy chuckled.

"Girls, just get her in the car before she wakes up." I ordered them dusting myself off.

"I could have handled her…" the homeowner scoffed cradling her left arm.

"Your injuries say otherwise." I told her.

"Do you have to take her?" she asked.

"Yes. This is a direct violation of the Homestay Program's rules." I replied.

"It was just a little argument." she scoffed.

"I wouldn't call this 'little'. You could have been hurt far worse than this too if we hadn't shown up." I scolded her.

"Jeez, you sound like my dad." she scoffed dismissively.

"You sound like my daughter." I scoffed before leaving for the vehicle.

Satogami-kun was waiting by our vehicle with his team in a van. He had the smile of a proud coworker on his face. On second glance, it looked to be more than that as well. I wanted to be sure to thank him for bringing Smith's orders.

"I can't believe you bought it at face value." Satogami-kun snickered.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"I lied. Smith didn't say a thing." he grinned sending shock through my body.

"You… but I…" was all I could get out before thoughts of the consequences came to my head dropping me to my knees.

"Don't sweat it. If you need to get in the fray yourself then do it. If your teammates wind up in the emergency room because you sat back and watched when you could have done something, you're a failure as a team leader. In the Demonic Fang, it's do or die, no hesitation allowed. If you hesitate and someone dies because of you, their blood is on your hands and you can only blame yourself." Satogami-kun lectured me.

"MON's laws strictly forbid it…" I told him.

"Who gives a shit? Your teammates are family, and you protect your family at all costs. You help them grow, you help them achieve their goals, you help them hone their skills, and they in turn help you grow. I don't agree with all of Demonic Fangs' teachings, but the majority can teach you a lot about working as a team." Satogami-kun continued to lecture me… I felt like I was a punk in middle school getting chewed out by my old man again.

"Satogami-kun… let's go drinking after I turn her in to HQ." I told him.

"I'm not legal for another three months, but I can at least keep you company if you want." he shrugged.

I took Satogami-kun with me to a bar & brill that I used to go to with my daughter on my days off. I didn't used to drink until I was drunk though. I had no intention of actually getting drunk this time though. I felt I could tell Satogami-kun what was happening and get his input.

"Satogami-kun… do you remember what I asked you at the vending machine? About being on the wrong side of an argument?" I asked him.

"Yeah. That's related to a family matter you're going through isn't it?" he responded hitting the nail on the head.

"How… did you know…?" I stuttered.

"No one asks those questions without it relating to them somehow." he bluntly replied as our drinks arrived.

"I guess not…" I chuckled.

"So, you plan to tell me your story right?" he asked continuing to see through me like a window.

"Yeah… my daughter's name was Haruka. She evidently changed it when she left home." I answered.

"Must have been a hell of an argument." Satogami-kun stated.

"Well… my wife passed away due to a driver who was more focused on texting than driving veering from their lane hitting her car head on. Haruka didn't take it very well and started reacting violently whenever people tried to console her. The other driver lived but lost the ability to walk entirely. She always went on about how they should be dead and not her mother, how unfair it was." I explained to him.

"Life isn't always fair. Of course, not accepting consolation or help from friends is the wrong answer. I'm guessing you made a bad step somewhere if you claim to have been in the wrong though." Satogami-kun sighed.

"She always got in my face when I didn't agree with her, saying we shouldn't hunt down that driver when they already paid the damages and money for a proper funeral. She'd hit me, call me a horrible husband, say I never loved my wife, that I only had her around for cheap meaningless sex, and other things. One night work had me on the verge of cracking… it was the three year anniversary of my wife's death. I came home to find my wife's tombstone in pieces on the kotatsu. Haruka was sitting on the couch bouncing a hammer on her palm." I told him on the verge of tears.

"You snapped…" Satogami-kun stated.

"She told me… 'there's no reason to have a tombstone for someone you didn't love'... I broke and put her in the emergency room. There was no excuse for what I did… the only reason I didn't end up in the slammer is because the entire block around my house testified that she was abusing me both verbally and physically, that it was self-defense on my part… and comeuppance for her behavior." I elaborated.

"I'm guessing her lawyers tried to appeal numerous times?" Satogami-kun asked while finishing his fries.

"Ten, in fact. The judge actually threatened to charge them with harassment if they brought it up again. If I'm honest… I think jail would have suited me for what I did. She packed her things and left to live with a friend. I haven't seen her since. It's been a very long time." I answered.

"I have ways of tracking people down, you know. If you want me to I can hunt her down so you can talk it out. This happened, what, twenty years ago?" Satogami-kun offered.

"Correct, twenty years. Even so, I doubt Smith-san would let you use MON's network for that. It's for work purposes only." I told him with a sheepish smile.

A week passed since then. The girls were being suspiciously diligent about chores in the house when I woke up. Did they break something? I looked, but everything was in one piece. They claimed nothing was up as well. Even at work it continued. Ivy didn't flirt once with anyone. Something was up… and I was going to find out what. I had the girls go on ahead of me so I could see Satogami-kun. As usual, he was working much later than me.

"What did you tell my team?" I asked him.

"I just told 'em your sob story after hearing them complaining. Wouldn't you know, it fixed their attitude toward your dad tendencies completely." he answered without looking up from his computer.

"You didn't have to do that…" I told him.

"You're my coworker, that makes you family too. Family helps family. So I'm just doing my part." Satogami-kun shrugged.

I returned home and found that none of the girls were present. I thought I'd go look for them when the doorbell rang. I opened it to a woman with long blue hair wearing a thick brown trench coat hiding her clothing and a red scarf. Behind her was the woman that I'd taken the homestay Minotaur from.

"So it is you… dad." the blue-haired woman sighed.

"Haruka?!" I exclaimed in shock.

I didn't recognize her at all. She was filled out, had dyed her hair, and grown it out considerably. I invited her in and she analyzed the house thoroughly making me grateful the girls went all out today. That was when it hit me… they set this up with help from Satogami-kun, that sneaky devil. Haruka gave a satisfied sigh before sitting down on the loveseat forcing the woman with her to sit as well.

"It's been twenty years, hasn't it? The last time I was here my arms and left leg were in casts while the movers gathered my things." Haruka stated.

"Yeah…" was all I could really say.

"Firstly, introductions are in order. This is my daughter, Yoko, and she's currently trying to get into college. She's enamoured with extraspecies cultural exchange and wants to someday work in MON." Haruka told me.

"Is that so?" I asked.

"He took away my friend… she was helping me toughen up for the job MON would have me doing." Yoko growled.

"Haruka… about what I did that day… I'm very sorry…" I choked out.

"That's not mom's name." Yoko told me.

"Wrong. That's my birth name, just like ordinarily I would have had his surname until I married your father." Haruka corrected her without me even saying anything.

"You said you hated his guts…" Yoko spoke in disbelief.

"That was before I found out how hard parenting is. It seems fine and dandy with both parents… but subtract one… it becomes a nightmare. You can't always be there, you can't always get your child what they ask for, a lot of the time you have to say 'no' as much as you want to say 'yes'. Worst of all… it leaves a gaping hole in your heart. Back then… by acting selfishly I tore another in your heart. I didn't once stop to think of what mom would say to me if she could see what I'd done. I didn't think about how much you were suffering either. So I'm the one who should be sorry." Haruka explained bringing tears to my eyes.

"Mom…" Yoko gasped.

"What dad did to me that day I had coming the day I started laying my hands on him. Every day once I had my moment of clarity I'd visit mom's grave and ask her for the strength to say I was sorry. I'd apologize endlessly for doing that to her first gravestone. Sometimes I'd wish the paramedics had let me bleed out. I'd actually had several opportunities over the last twenty years to apologize, but I was always too scared of what you'd do. Your coworker, Agent Satogami-san… he gave me the strength to come here today. He told me about how hard you were trying, how much you wished you could talk it out, that you blame yourself for me leaving…" Haruka explained coming to tears herself.

"I knew it…" I thought to myself envisioning Satogami-san's smug grin.

"Haruka… I'd like to mend our relationship. It can't have been easy for you if you became a widow." I told her.

"You'd know first-hand, huh?" Haruka chuckled.

The next few weeks were spent catching up. It turned out Haruka wound up a lot like me in the end. We have the same drink preference, same food preference, and prefer the same shows. My granddaughter was the exact same way, prompting something very unexpected - Haruka cracked a joke about it being genetic. I'd only heard from the school about her jokes and puns, so it caught me off guard actually hearing one. She apparently did it at home a lot going by Yoko's groan.

I had to thank Satogami-kun for this. I don't think we'd have ever reached out like this if he didn't stick his nose in. I made for his office and froze seeing his Kobold partner on all fours with a dog collar on with a leash being fed a treat.

"I know this looks bad… but I can explain..." Satogami-kun stated.

"I'm listening…" I told him trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Smith said that it's important to roleplay in order to build a bond with each teammate. So we're roleplaying master and pet, and it was her idea." he explained.

"Is it…?" I asked her.

"Don't judge people's kinks lest yours be judged as well." she told me with the straightest face I'd ever seen.

I calmly closed the door and pretended I didn't see it. I emailed him a thank you instead. He's wise for his age, but still just a kid. I decided if he ever needed help I'd lend a hand if I could. Still… I felt like I was forgetting something. That was when Smith entered my office...

"Did you finish assembling your team yet?" she asked instantly clarifying what I was forgetting...


End file.
